Strawhat Luffy with the heal heal fruit
by ulfark
Summary: Luffy, before setting out, eats not one but two devils fruits... and lived. He sets out earlier than planned, and with a different mindset. He found out early on that not everything is 'rainbows and sunshine' and happy endings don't come cheap, and that small fact changes his whole life. OCs introduced along with the canon crew. Rated M for violence.
1. A nice day out in the forest with ninety

Chapter one: A nice day out in the forest with ninety-nine percent chance of dying forecasted

Prologue

Luffy was running for his life through the forest from some wolves his gramps said were perfectly harmless. Maybe to him they were just playful little puppies but to luffy they were the ultimate predators.

He was lucky they had just been circling him so far and hadn't attacked yet. They were most likely checking to see if he had any fellow humans around that could ambush them.

It was a possibility Luffy wouldn't have put past his gramps, using him to catch a meal seemed right up his alley. He would probably call it training and in response to his complaints say 'you need to toughen up son, if you want to be a good marine'. And he seriously wondered why luffy wanted to be a pirate instead, after all his complaining about lazy no good pirates. Luffy learned only one lesson during his training sessions with his grandpa and that was to do the exact opposite of whatever he said.

A wolf came closer as if testing him or for any other traps and ambushes, his time was running out. They were running him ragged on purpose to tire him out as he knew wolves did with larger prey but he was actually quite small. His only saving grace had been the ingrained fear of humans that they had to overcome, but soon they would judge him as weak enough to devour.

He frantically looked around the forest his gramps had dumped him in and wished once more he could figure out a map. He knew some basics like 'follow the river to get to civilization' but right now a concrete direction would be a godsend. Better yet would be the phantom hunting party the wolves feared but he wasn't that lucky. But if it did happen, maybe they would reward him for being the unintentional bait and get some meat as thanks.

Luffy was already drooling about eating some juicy wolf's hind leg when another one came in view just in front of him with his ears pointed forward his canines bared and his eyes wide open piercing him with a glare. He subconsciously changed direction without thinking about it and realized his mistake seconds after. They were herding him somewhere, most likely a cliff so he could fall off it or some other obstacle. He soon lost his footing when he stormed through some bushes and felt the ground fell out underneath him. Well no not literally but he had just ran off a steep hill so for a few seconds it felt like that. And then came the crash and he rolled down the hill bumping into every stray rock and plant on his way.

He groaned in agony cursing his luck that some thorny plant had to be in his path. He was covered in small cuts and soaking his clothes in more blood. He idly wondered if his blood would lure more animals to join the party. He heard the soft padding of the wolves approaching , he had to get up and show he still had some live left in him before they started to feast on him.

With great effort he sat up halfway and gave a yell of defiance, more to encourage himself than to scare the wolves away. they just stared at Luffy giving him a 'are you serious' expression. Well maybe they weren't and he was just imagining stuff. But the important thing was that they kept their distance for now. He looked around once more knowing there was no way he could outrun them now that he was hurt. Well he couldn't outrun them before either but detail details.

He spotted a weird spiral shaped tree just up ahead that had grown around another dead tree and covered in long thin vines that resembled a bride's veil. Luffy couldn't believe his eyes the easiest tree to climb imaginable was right there within his reach. He ran for it while clutching his wounds, the wolves let him seemingly amused by his last ditch attempt to get away. He clambered up into the tree using the vines as handholds while the spiral tree served as a foothold. The wolves recognized their prey getting away and tried to snap at his back. But the vines impaired their lunges, it denied them a firm foothold as they got caught in its constricting vines. Luffy screamed though, they jumped up and had caught his ankle. Luffy tried to hold on as they tried to drag him back to the ground. He could feel his bones being pulverized by the strength of the wolf's jaw. In a desperate attempt he kicked the wolf with his other leg. It caught him by surprise and he let go and fell back to the ground. Luffy took this respite to keep on climbing while favoring his other foot as much as possible.

he was soon safe high up in the tree and the wolf pack's caution had just cost them a meal. He was however alone and no one was looking for him. But whether this was unlucky or lucky for him was up for debate because in case of his grandpa. He was better off alone as garp would eat popcorn and cheer the wolves on.

After a few minutes of catching his breath Luffy looked around the oddly shaped tree. The spiral shape had made it easy for him to climb. Which had saved his life as he seriously doubted he could have reached the lower limbs of a normal tree. But with this one he could just run up the trunk while holding onto it at the same time. The wolves had tried to follow but it soon it became too steep for them. They didn't have the advantage of grabbing onto the branches that luffy had. But they were stubborn and didn't leave which worried Luffy. "" How the hell am I going to get home now"" cried Luffy

It didn't take long before Luffy got hungry, only fifteen minutes to be exact. It was also coincidentally the same amount of time it took for Luffy to stop worrying about the wolves. Luffy looked around some more and only spotted one weird shaped fruit. It was big and resembled a pineapple somewhat but this one had weird decorations. It was also green and luffy didn't like green food in general but was willing to make an exception. He climbed up to the top of the tree and plucked the big green fruit.

Luffy didn't bother to think about whether it might be poisonous or not or even if it was ripe. All he cared about was that he was hungry and he had something to eat. He took a big bite out of it and it tasted awful. "" I guess it wasn't ripe yet"" said Luffy and shrugged and continued eating. He got a weird tingling feeling all over his body and ignored that too. It helped that he had numerous small cuts and bruises over his body that distracted him from it. After he was done eating he took a nap, it wasn't like he was going anywhere after all.

Luffy woke up eight hours later and saw that the wolves had finally given up. "" Lucky !" he shouted and jumped down from the tree and ran home. Never did he notice that he had miraculously healed all his wounds during his long nap. Luffy would just write it off as the power of food that healed all his wounds. He would later also become a devout believer that off all foods, meat was by far the most potent in healing and therefore must be consumed in vast quantities.

/

Time skip

Luffy was in Makino's bar with his idol trying to impress him by claiming his punch was as strong as a pistol. Never quite realizing that a ordinary pistol wasn't that impressive to the red haired pirates. Though shanks hadn't yet reached the title of Yonkou he did have numerous voyages through the grand line under his belt both with his former captain and on his own. He was a man in his late twenties who had already done and seen more than most men would in their entire life. Right now though he was merely indulging the boy who sounded a bit like his old captain taking him down memory lane.

Then the mountain bandits showed up and demanded ten barrels of rum but shanks and his crew had already drank it all. Shanks tried to solve this peacefully by letting the bandits mess with him a bit so they could get it out of their system. When they left he saw a sulking Luffy who was bitterly disappointed in his hero.

""Why did you let them bully you around like that. Why didn't you stand up for yourself"" shouted luffy

Shanks had to admit that for most people that was a good question if they indeed lacked a spine but for Shanks it was more that he didn't feel like dealing with every weakling seeking fame once they heard he was in town. Fuusha town would be overwhelmed in pirate hordes searching for him and killing and torturing everyone for information. But he couldn't tell that to luffy so he settled on another convenient truth. "" Luffy sometimes it is better not to fight when it isn't worth it. Not everything can be solved with violence.""

This didn't appease the young boy and he ran out of the bar screaming"" You're just a coward"'. That hurt a bit coming from the kid who believed in him so much just five minutes Shanks just shrugged it off and figured Luffy would calm down and hopefully learn a valuable lesson. It was better to lose sometimes than to just keep escalating things till you win. Then shanks looked at his treasure chest to reaffirm it was still there as most people do when they carry around something valuable and noticed it was missing. "" Hey louts where did the treasure chest go""

After some confusion and conferencing among themselves they yelled back"" We think the bandits took it when we were distracted by your sideshow with their leader.""

Shanks cursed that was a valuable devil fruit, he didn't care much about the money but the power it could give might have helped save one of his nakama one day. Although he personally thought it was a pretty useless power. According to Vegapunk's book it historically belonged only to third rate pirates and marines.

No one had been able to make it into a decent weapon and was used more for entertainment than anything else. Shanks wondered for a minute if going after it was worth it but then realized he was in East blue the weakest sea. Even that third rate devil fruit could turn a two bit crook into a formidable pirate in these waters. So he rallied his men to give chase, sadly his crew were so drunk they could barely walk straight. That was due to the sense of safety of being in the weakest sea, it was their holiday for a reason after all. After a few minutes and a bit of arguing they got up and organized a search party.

/

The bandits meanwhile were in the forest breaking the lock on the treasure chest they had stolen while no one was looking. They had the crowbar and lock picks all ready when they realized it wasn't locked. "" Who the hell doesn't lock a treasure chest" they all yelled loudly. Then they looked inside and only saw a weird ass fruit. "' No wonder it wasn't locked it's just a interesting peculiarity they picked up"" Higuma said. Another asked """What's a peculariarity ""

The group looked at him and let out a sigh, no wonder the world government looked down on them so much when the average bandit was this stupid. Everyone knew the marines was where the elites went. And the police got the rejects, and those same rejects were tasked in capturing bandits. Getting caught by rejects really hurt their pride, but they were thankful not to have drawn the ire of the elite marines. They decided to answer him rather than hit him for his stupidity as that could only make matters worse. Higuma said "" An odd trinket or some such numbskull."" The myth of devil fruits wasn't well known in east blue and so they didn't recognize it for what it was. The above average bandit wasn't that much smarter after all, they just had more common sense.

The bandits weren't interested in it and threw it down the hill were it rolled into the bushes and moved on. An hour later they were confronted by the red haired pirates who demanded to know where their fruit was.

/

Luffy was skulking through the forest after that pathetic display by his idol. He couldn't believe that shanks was that big of a coward. It didn't make any sense, his gramps had been disapproving of him but didn't bother arresting him. That only made sense if shanks was either too weak to bother with or too strong to take on alone. He knew the local bandits were too weak to be bothered with but his gramps didn't like his relationship with shanks so he would probably arrest him to put a stop to it.

Unless he didn't, to spare his feelings which Luffy seriously doubted . His gramps had overlooked how he felt about things for years by throwing him into different forests with wild animals. So that meant that Shanks had to be too strong to take on without back up. (The reason why he didn't just call for that back up was currently up in mount Corbo counting his loot with Sabo.) But why didn't shanks defend himself then against those lowlifes. He was getting a head ache from all this thinking.

Luffy was snapped out of his thoughts as he heard something roll down the hill a little up ahead. He ran over to see what it was. He saw it was another of those weird fruits he ate a while back. He remembered the weird taste but hoped this one was ripe enough to eat this time and ate it.

He was wrong this one tasted awful as well and he got a weird tingling all over his body but Luffy wasn't that worried. But then it intensified and came from inside his guts and felt like it was bursting open. He started to bleed all over, not just from his mouth but his eyes and ears as well. Luffy was in intense agony and he screamed his throat hoarse.

Luffy got dizzy and stumbled and fell into the river and his screams got muffled by the water. He wanted to get out or he would drown but he couldn't move. His entire body seemed to be on fire and he couldn't even lift a finger.

Luffy thought he might die before he showed Shanks that he was a better pirate than he would ever be which was unacceptable to him. Luffy fought with his willpower to survive somehow fighting through the pain to stay conscious.

Luffy triggered his heal heal fruit and it started to heal his wounds as fast as it could. But luffy's entire body was disintegrating and it was struggling to keep up. The two fruits were battling it out inside of him trying to impart their special properties on his cells. By trial and error they tried different combinations until they found a DNA combination that allowed them to coexist. This decomposing and recomposing was sheer torture and couldn't be survived by any man.

This was the reason for the iron clad rule that you couldn't eat two devil fruits. But the iyasu iyasu fruit allowed luffy to survive it. Although he was most definitely not thankful for it at the moment. He was still trapped inside the river and was being carried to the sea which was a sure devil fruit user killer.

He had tried to learn how to swim in the shallow bits of this river before but hadn't tried it in the sea. For a good reason as even Luffy knew about the sea king just offshore. Luffy had by now fallen unconscious and wouldn't have been able to swim even if he was awake. His body was still in excruciating agony and wouldn't be done incorporating his two fruits anytime soon.

His body flowed down the river bumping in debris along the way that he could have grabbed onto if he was awake. It was by a stroke of misfortune and luck that his clothing got caught on a tree branch. It would have been good if he could breathe. But he was still underwater thus drowning, luckily his heal heal fruit prevented any major brain damage ( though some doctors disagree). After some time his gomu gomu fruit finally reconciled with the heal heal fruit and activated.

The current of the river stretched his limbs and this increased the pull the river had on him. Eventually the branch broke under the strain and he washed up on the river bank. He would have drifted out onto sea if it wasn't for his long limbs that clogged up the river and changed his direction. So in the end the branch actually saved his life after trying its hardest to kill him, maybe it gave up.

When luffy woke up he was still sore all over and this time he did think that maybe weird looking fruits were poisonous. He limped to town to get some help and eat something non poisonous.

When he got there he spotted the red haired pirates standing in town arguing with each other. He asked a villager what was wrong "" Those mountain bandits were stupid enough to steal something valuable from those pirates so they gave chase and killed them when they found out they threw it away"" replied the villager

"" Really why would they throw away treasure"" asked Luffy not understanding why anyone would throw away treasure.

"" Apparently they claimed they didn't know what it was."" replied the villager calmly. he was glad that the rather docile pirates had gotten rid of the annoying mountain bandits.

Luffy went up to shanks and greeted him "" Dear god, Luffy what happened to you"" asked Shanks

"" Nothing I fell in the river"" said Luffy not bothering denying it as he was still drenched and had cuts and bruises everywhere from the debris in the river. "" Never mind that. what happened with you and those bandits when you said that it was better not to fight"" asked luffy. Although he didn't mind standing up for yourself. Getting revenge because someone stole something from you by killing them was going too far.

Shanks saw the confusion on the boy's face and decided brutal honesty was best as a sugar coated one would only make matters worse. "" Luffy what they stole from us was something that could turn a weakling into a strong guy overnight. If those scoundrels got their hands on it they would terrorize this town and no one would be able to stand up to them. We tried to get it back but they lied and said they threw it away. We checked were they said it was supposed to be and found nothing. They must have hidden it somewhere but they didn't tell us where. So we had to kill them all so none of them could find it and use it."'

"" You didn't have to kill them! You could have just handed them over to the marines"" yelled luffy with a vein pulsing above his right eye. Though he preferred to be a pirate he did still respect the marines in no small part because his gramps was one.

"" Luffy I'm a pirate they would arrest me on first sight not to mention that the marines around here are lax and corrupt. They could have just bribed their way out of jail and then terrorize this area, Killing them was the only way to make sure that didn't happen. I know I said that sometimes fighting wouldn't solve anything but also sometimes it is the only way to solve something. You understand ? "" tried to explain Shanks unsure of himself whether he was doing a good job.

"" I guess"" said Luffy trying to wrap his brain around it. The only basic notion that got through his skull though. Was that you had to kill the bad guys or they would kill your friends. Gone was his childish notion of just beating up the bad guy and it would all be okay. As they would just get up again once you turned your back. With this one conversation Shanks had set in motion a massive shift in Luffy's personality.

Instead of teaching him restraint as he had tried to do earlier in the bar. He had taught him that mercy wasn't always deserved and could bite you in the ass. "" Luffy don't worry about that for now. "" Said Shanks he then took off his straw hat and put it on Luffy's head "" Give that back to me when you become a great pirate okay"" said Shanks trying to distract him, though he was serious and had been planning on giving it to him before. He had finally acknowledged luffy's dream, and unconsciously associated the necessity to kill with becoming a pirate for Luffy, which had never been Shanks intention by giving it right after killing the bandits.

/

AUTHOR NOTES

_minor spoiler alert_

This is my first story and English isn't my first language so please criticize it into the ground or else I will think you're lying. I'm in need of a beta, preferably a female beta who absolutely hates weak female heroines and loves those who kick ass. I want to write something along those lines so I need someone to tell me if what I write actually makes sense from a female's perspective. also some love for background setting is appreciated because right now if my background descriptions were clothes my story would be more naked than a nudist on a beach. I need the kick in my pants to actually write some.

I welcome all constructive criticism and off course creative insults. if you are going to complain about my writing skills you've got to show me how it's done by the experts. I really need a few tutoring lessons on creative cursing as I tend to stick to only a few that roll of the tongue but are really unimaginative. Preferably some kind of metaphor that takes a few seconds for the other guy to realize he's just been insulted.

I have already written out another couple of chapters which I really only need to polish and add the capital letters to. so it might only take me a few months to finish the next chapter. I really hate capital letters if it wasn't mandatory to seem smarter than a six year old, I would boycott them.

For all those wondering how this chapter will affect the rest of the story I can only say, don't worry it won't. You can skip this part and be fine for many chapters to come, you might not even really need to read it until Luffy starts sailing into the grand line, which I still haven't gotten around to writing yet.( Although he will use his iyasu iyasu fruit before that, I know because I just wrote it. )

In case you haven't noticed, the first part of the story will be before Luffy turns seventeen to prevent the boring drudgery of Alvida, Morgan, Buggy, Krieg and Arlong. I only glanced at a few One piece fics but after reading the same story with minor variations a dozen times I was already sick of them. so I will try to prevent that but will most likely fail miserably, so feel free to shoot me then.

To those complaining about a overpowered luffy, just picture the cannon luffy with the heal heal fruit and triggering it unconsciously during big fights. Now doesn't he have a miraculous tendency to pull through crippling injuries. Couldn't it have been that he ate the heal heal fruit but never realized it ?

The heal heal fruit is my answer to my personal annoyance with good guys being able to fight through severe injuries to the point of being soaked in their own blood and actually fight better than when they were uninjured. That's just taking wish fulfillment to the extreme and kills the tension. I no longer care how beat up they get so long as it looks good. The same problem with endings, I know its going to end well I just want to know how. The process is more interesting than the result and I want to at least give a more believable explanation for it than willpower.

That being said I still love the scene where Hachi rips of Zoro's bandages and reveals his torso almost cut in half, fighting on despite that shows you why Zoro is a boss. But Zoro actually suffers from his wounds on a regular basis unlike luffy and ichigo etc. Special abilities are great but they need to have limitations. That's why death note and code geass are my favorites, they had god like powers but severe limitations as well forcing them to work around it. Not to mention the bad ending where the MC died without fulfilling his goal. I had to take a moment to actually believe what just happened it was that shocking. And to this day I firmly believe Lelouch is still alive because I can't bear the thought he isn't and that is good writing. Sadly I'm not that good so don't expect it here.

P.S. disclaimer I do not own one piece or any other copyrighted work or else I wouldn't be here now would I. I would be lounging on my couch thinking of another book that actually earns money.


	2. a pleasure cruise on the high seas

Chapter two: a pleasure cruise on the high seas with ninety percent of dying forecasted

Time skip eight years later

Natasha POV

Natasha had enlisted when she was eighteen at a marine outpost and had been genuinely enthusiastic about becoming a law abiding and enforcing marine and spread happiness among the civilians by arresting evil pirates. The same kind as the ones that raided her village when she was eleven and made her an orphan.

She had been relegated to boring mundane tasks like scrubbing the floors and helping the cook by pre-cutting the hundreds of ingredients. It wasn't as glamorous as she had hoped but she was still happy about it. Though it would have been more enjoyable if she didn't have to listen to grown man bitch and cry all the time.

"" I can't believe we're still scrubbing the same damn floor we scrubbed yesterday "' complained Sebastian

"" I know Bas, it's like they don't even care if it's clean or not they just want to torture us, the sadistic bastards""

"" Be careful they don't hear you or you'll be on lavatory duty for the next month Chris "'

"" We'll get promoted soon enough so shut up, you lot whine more than a baby who just shat his pants"" sniped Natasha. She figured that after she put in her dues she would get promoted to a decent post.

Natasha moved away from them closer to the officers staff room " I really hope I don't get stuck with those slackers on a ship. Trusting my back to them sounds like asking for an early retirement in a body bag"" complained Natasha to herself. She wasn't impressed with the caliber of her fellow recruits, they lacked resolve.

She got jolted out of her musings when she overheard a conversation floating from the staff room. "" id you get that payment from Kuro"" her heart skipped a beat were they talking about pirate captain Kuro who supposedly died, no that couldn't be right she thought. But there wasn't a marine officer by the name of Kuro that she knew off or a civilian in the surrounding area.

"" Yeah but he was annoyed with me about the price"" huh were they talking about bribes ?

"' Cheeky brat what did he expect for keeping quiet. So he can poison one of the more influential families in East blue"" Natasha was shocked her superior officers took not just bribes but were planning to be an accessory to a premeditated murder.

"" You think he will actually pull it off ? ""

"' Hmm no reason why not, those parents were the real power, that daughter of them is so sickly that Kuro can easily wrap her around his finger before he kills her.""

Natasha was stunned speechless her entire worldview just came crashing down. She had accepted corrupt marines as a vague possibility, more of a mental exercise than a real life fact really. It was like one of those things that happened to other people but never to you but now it had happened to her and she had no clue how to deal with it. She slumped her shoulders and went through the motions for the rest of the day until she got to her bunk bed and had the most fretful sleep she ever had.

The next day was worse for Natasha, she hadn't yet processed the events of yesterday and again she was posted to scrub the same damn floor outside the officers staff room. She was a pro cleanliness type of girl but this seemed excessive even to her.

Her day passed slowly as she went to scrub the same square meter she did yesterday which sparkled back at her with the same intensity as if mocking her. But her mind wasn't on it instead she was thinking of that dreaded door she was inching towards. For some reason Sebastian and Chris had left her to clean this part of the corridor again. She understood the slackers wanting to pawn of their work on her but to get posted in the same stretch of corridor on the same floor on successive days was weird. Well maybe she was just overreacting and seeing things that weren't there because she was going into a tail spin. She was starting to doubt everything now that the fundamental bedrock 'that marines were good' was ripped out from under her.

But then came those voices again drifting through the wind and more ominous to her than a hail of bullets. "" Did you hear back from that new guy ""

"" Yeah he said he wouldn't pay his protection money, he says he doesn't need protection in the weakest sea"'

The other guy laughed "" Doesn't he realize that the only reason that we are the 'weakest sea' is because his competition doesn't need to be stronger"" does that mean that every pirate in east blue is paying bribes wondered Natasha

"' Arrogant young fool, but no matter after a battleship comes for him he'll be singing a different tune"'

"" I got a better idea let him rack up a few million in bounty and then we sent our own bounty hunter to collect it. We use marine intelligence to catch him and then send in a accomplice to collect the bounty in exchange for a commission. ""

the other guy laughed "' You really got a knack for business Nezumi ""

""'Thanks lieutenant I aim to please"'

This royally pissed of Natasha, she was ready to give her commanding officer a piece of her mind. But knew she would get killed in a heartbeat if she did so. There was no way she could go up against a marine captain by herself, not to mention the rest of the base. She was by now severely disillusioned about the glory of the marines.

She bowed her head resigned to her fate, she was stuck in the gears of the machine if she fought it all it would do was get her crushed. She then noticed that her fellow recruits' mops were idle. She took a closer look from the corner of her eye and saw that all of them were looking at her, not even that subtle if you asked her.

Then she realized it was scripted, she hadn't heard these conversations by accident at all. She was meant to hear them so they could judge her worthy or not. Though the scales of judgment were a mirror image of the ones she was used to, good was bad and evil was good. Luckily for her, she was so depressed that she hadn't reacted one way or the other. They were probably watching her carefully for signs of outrage or something like that.

They were scoping her out to see whether or not they could recruit her to their little club. She however had no intention whatsoever to ever join them, she would rather die. She had her principles and she wouldn't go against them just to live longer. But she didn't give any outward sign of her disapproval. It had been her dream to hunt down those foul pirates and throw them in impel down and she wouldn't give up now but she had to amend it.

She would now include corrupt marines as well. But she couldn't go against the iron clad hierarchy of the marines. You followed the orders of your commanding officer unquestioningly or would be court-martialed. If she started complaining to top brass she would be written off as a liar unless she had the direct ear of a high ranking officer.

This grim reality sunk in to Natasha and prevented her from going on a rampage but she would do something. If necessary she would get herself discharged from the marines with dishonor but they wouldn't let her go just like that. When they knew she had heard those rumors and could spread them among civilians and become a troublemaker for them. Especially since that lieutenant had slipped up and actually used her captain's real name 'Nezumi'. Unless of course it was a double bluff and they were trying to besmirch Nezumi's name if things went sideways.

Regardless of whether her captain was actually involved which she concluded he probably was, as he was the highest ranking marine on base and couldn't miss such obvious bribes. She came to the bone chilling realization that she would be forced to become a pirate. She no longer could become a bounty hunter, which was her fall back plan if becoming a marine didn't work out. A bounty hunter with a bounty was a pirate no matter what she said, everyone would recognize her as a pirate.

Natasha didn't even want to think about what they would think of her back in her home village. Collinsport was a simple town and saw the world in black and white. Pirates were evil, marines were good and bounty hunters were bad but not completely evil. They could have accepted her being a bounty hunter if she just claimed that she couldn't pass the test to become a marine or something.

They would believe that unquestioningly and just console and support her being a bounty hunter. But a pirate was too much when most of them had lost loved ones to pirate raids. They would vilify her before the day was out.

Natasha quietly finished up her mopping for the day and reported to the kitchen to start peeling potatoes. This was the first time she thanked the mind numbing task as she could freely explore her options while keeping busy.

After her sixth potato she settled into a rhythm and her mind went pleasantly blank. She thought about her options some more and it came down to desert, whistleblower, pirate, or go ape shit and massacre as many people as she could before dying herself. She wasn't seriously contemplating that last one but it was so entertaining that it kept sneaking back in to her thought process.

After some soul searching and what was important to her it came down to two things really. She promised on her parents grave that she would grow up to stop bad guy and they would be proud of her. she had tried combining the two by becoming a marine, who in her village's eyes were the quintessential modern heroes. That had worked out just wonderfully, not even past her 'wet behind the ears' phase and already she was getting offers to join the bad guys anonymous club. Was it something on her forehead that said 'will do anything for money'. Or maybe it was because she got too overexcited when they had to demonstrate kill techniques on straw dummies.

Nah that was just ridiculous they wouldn't want an overeager marine but a underachiever that thought he deserved better. Wait did they think of her as that, that was actually worse than bloodthirsty maniac. She settled on that she was just too overeager and they wanted a disposable tool for risky missions, yeah that made sense.

After reassuring herself Natasha worked out her other options and came to one simple conclusion, she had to die. "" Yep there is nothing for it but to just kick the bucket, but hopefully in a memorable way"

Though Natasha mourned the loss of her childhood friends already, whom she could never see again. She had no choice but to fake her death and take on a new name if she wanted any chance of fulfilling her dream. She could never join the marines again as they had her picture on file but she didn't want to anymore anyway. But with a new name and if she grew her hair out she could look different enough to not be recognized as a bounty hunter.

Natasha had a plan now and was willing to go to extreme lengths to execute it. But she wasn't willing to leave her dream behind and leave with her tail between her legs without some payback.

She waited till late at night and snuck out of her bunk bed careful not to make a sound, which wasn't that difficult. Military discipline ensured that everything was in the exact same spot all the time. So she could walk through this room with her eyes closed if she had to. She briefly contemplated going over to Sebastian and Chris's bunk beds and leave some kind of surprise for them when they woke up. But it was juvenile, risky and a bit insulting to her intelligence to actually do it. So she passed on it and made her way over to her captains office. Again she had scrubbed that floor so many times she could write pages full of intricate detail of how the marble shimmered and what colors and patterns it had but she would go insane if she actually tried.

She walked up to her captains office and pressed her ear up against the door to check if he was still working. She heard nothing but for safety's sake she knocked on it anyway. if he was here she would have to make up an excuse but she wouldn't have just tried breaking into an occupied room. She thought compared to making up an awkward lie, breaking into a room full of people just seemed more stupid.

There was no response or any rustle of clothes she could hear so she opened the door with the key she had stolen from the guy who had to clean her captain's office. He was easily enough distracted with her feminine charm and two bottles of smuggled wine from the kitchen. She had half expected to be forced to listen to his lame jokes half of the night. But surprisingly he had been willing to just joke around with his friends until he passed out.

She entered slowly and watched the shadows for any movements. Finding none, she proceeded to light a candle left on a side table and started her search for anything incriminating.

It took some time but she found a mountain of evidence of illegal dealings most notably slave trade. She was outraged, taking bribes to let pirates go was one thing but slave trade was unconscionable. Screw jail it was too good for them, the bloody bastards all deserved to die and she would see to it.

As she was gathering all the evidence up into a briefcase. She found in one of the desk drawers a weird looking fruit. She recognized it immediately as a devil fruit and took it as well. The bloody things were worth a hundred million berry, she may not be able to hurt her captain directly but she could bloody well hurt him financially and/or militarily.

She ate it quickly before she was found out. Even if she got caught and sentenced to death at least she would have the satisfaction of knowing she hurt the bastard.

She got everything she needed from the office and left. She had mostly ignored the money lying around as it was too heavy to carry around. She only took what she could carry without slowing her down. She did bother to pick up the training manual that marine headquarters at Enies lobby had sent over for her captain to study so he could get promoted according to the inscription. It was described to be full of secret techniques that high ranking marines were rumored to have.

She would be dammed if her corrupt captain got any stronger if she could help it, so was more than happy to steal it. If she made it out of here alive it might even help her as a bounty hunter so it was definitely valuable enough to take with her. With some luck her captain would be too embarrassed to say he lost it and just make up some excuse why he couldn't learn it and stay a local desk jockey forever.

Before sneaking out of the office she smashed open the liquor cabinet and sprayed the expensive liquids around. She even made it into bit of a dance while prancing around with two whisky bottles in her hand. After she was done dousing the office she placed a bottle of scotch on its side stuffed with a rag doused in it and set it on fire.

Though she hadn't tested it as there was no place to do it. If all went to plan the rag would burn till it reached the scotch inside and then cause a fireball that set the entire office on fire and cover up her theft. It was a crude timed explosive and a weak one at that, more fire than explosion really but still. Luckily only her captain Nezumi should enter this room before it went off and it was no skin of her back if he accidentally died.

She placed it underneath his desk to conceal it and place it where it would burn through the places she had pilfered for evidence. She then left the office smiling victoriously with a few million Beli more to her name, enough evidence to blackmail the man into doing just about anything and a book to make her powerful enough to challenge him by herself. Though that was ideally speaking and more than likely if she tried it right now, it would go sideways and she would end up in a execution block for her troubles.

She went down onto the docks and surveyed her choices, a number of grand majestic battleships awaited her but the damn things were too big to be crewed by one woman. By the time she got the main sail down there would be an audience on shore jeering at her for doing it wrong, because naturally everyone's a critic. So she settled for the fastest boat by which she meant 'to get ready', as a dinghy wouldn't win any speeding contests.

She got into the little boat and cast off while giving the base the finger as a final goodbye. She then rowed with her oars as hard as she could. It wouldn't take long for her absence to be missed after all. Well she could have gone unnoticed for hours perhaps until the next morning when they came to stalk her again but that wasn't what would set off the alarm. That would undoubtedly be due to captain Nezumi finding his office burglarized or torched depending on the success of her little trick. At the very least he would have a veritable nightmare getting the stains out of his carpet.

She smiled victoriously as she rowed away under the starlight. She had picked this night for a very good reason and that was because there was no moon. This meant that they would have some trouble finding out where she had gone. They couldn't see her in this darkness but would find her soon enough once the sun came up. She could never outrun the marine battleships in a rowing boat by herself. They may be big and burly but those big sails made them fast too, so long as you didn't expect tight cornering out of them. So it was a race against time for Natasha if she got to her destination in time she was home free if not she would be shot out of the water.

For eight hours Natasha rowed, only stopping to rest for fifteen minutes after every forty five minutes. She kept up a good pace but didn't overdo it too much. It was better to keep up a slightly slower pace after all than go all out and crap out after a mere ten kilometers.

But those thoughts of conserving stamina were soon ejected from her mind as she spotted a battleship on the horizon. It was doubtful it had seen her yet as it was still early dawn and visibility was still spotty but that was only a matter of time. She was close to her destination now but close wasn't good enough. It was all or nothing and she would be damned if a couple of ruptured calluses were going to kill her.

She rowed on more vigorously and the battleship spotted her as soon as the sun had come up a bit higher. It was a mad dash for the finish line now, but luckily for her the battleship wasn't as eager to speed up as she was. They believed they had her caught in open water in a worthless boat and no way to escape.

Natasha however knew different, already she could feel the current tugging at her little boat speeding her away from the battleship. It took some time before they realized she had speeded up before they too switched into higher gear. Her little boat however wasn't done accelerating, it wasn't long before Natasha didn't even bother using her oars as it didn't make much of a difference anymore. Her plan had gone off without a hitch and now there was only the last most risky part of it left.

The faking your own death part, she was really not looking forward to it but she knew of no other believable way. She knew a good faked death was public with plenty of witnesses ( cue battleship with five hundred marines) and was caused by some wide scale destruction that would kill most men but was hard to verify because it left no identifiable corpse. She had toyed with the idea of setting of an explosion in the ammunitions room but that would have required a dummy corpse and a clean getaway without anyone seeing her.

The problem was finding said patsy and placing her there without anyone noticing and creating paperwork that she was there when she wasn't supposed to be there according to the work shifts. It had too many inherent flaws to execute it, the bribing to change the work shifts and near impossible escape she could deal with. But the possibility of the fire spreading and causing more deaths and the moral implications of killing an innocent women for the dummy corpse was too much. Hell even if she found a corrupt one against all odds that looked like her it would still be too much.

She knew a lot of these marines were corrupt but she wasn't willing to kill the innocent ones just for a chance to kill the bad ones. So she had discarded that plan and settled on her current one, to row a small boat into a giant whirlpool. Her chance of dying was a optimistic ninety percent. The risk of collateral damage however was nonexistent unless the marines were dumb enough to follow her in.

She however didn't have to worry about that as they already dropped anchor and she saw some frantic yelling going on on deck. She smiled the corrupt bastards were also cowards as she expected. These really were the bottom of the barrel in the navy. She sighed, if she had known she would have sailed to the grand line first and enlisted in Logue town. It was a well known fact that the grand line marines there were tough no questions asked. They had to be with all the strong pirates around. The fact that they were closer to headquarters must also keep corruption down, at least she hoped so. If it spread all the way to the top she didn't know what she would do.

Natasha did know however what she was going to do right now. She had been sucked into the whirlpool and lost direct line of sight with the battleship. It was her golden window of opportunity , it was now or never. She quickly got inside her wine barrel for this special occasion. She had already stuffed it full of the things she pilfered from the captains office so it was a very tight fit. She had to move some stuff around so the lid would close.

In desperation she just chucked out all the money she had grabbed as it would do her no good if she was dead. She grabbed the rope she had attached to the lid and pulled it into place and then twisted it so it would lock with the interconnecting wood creating a airtight fit. She had just done it in the nick of time as a few moments later her ship crashed against the waves and got crushed into small pieces.

Natasha now prayed for three small miracles one that she wouldn't get smashed against any underwater rocks. Two that the battleship didn't bother to check the wreckage too closely. It would be a disaster to be fished up by them. And three that somebody else, preferably neither pirate or marine fished her up or alternatively that she would wash up on shore by herself.

It was a lot to hope for and she knew it, as she heard the raging sea just outside her barrel and her barrel bumping into unidentifiable things. she started wondering if plan A might have been better after all.

/

Luffy pov

Luffy was fishing on his little fishing boat he had bought by saving for years. He knew it wasn't much but it was a place to start on his path to becoming the pirate king. His brother ace had already set out on his journey a year ago on his own.

Luffy had wanted to join him but was still too young at fourteen according to ace. They had vowed to set sail no later than their seventeenth birthday in honor of Sabo. So Luffy had grudgingly accepted to wait until he was seventeen before heading out to the grand line. He however hadn't been slacking in the mean time. He had improved his gomu gomu powers as much as possible, now It really was as strong as a pistol.

"" I wonder if I lost my bait"'

Luffy hadn't caught anything all day but wasn't ready to call it a day yet until he caught something. when he was reeling in his line to check the bait, he spotted a barrel floating in the distance. He put away his fishing rod and grabbed his oars and rowed towards it. It was taking forever to get there though as the current was against him, while the barrel was floating away.

After an hour he finally punched through and got in the same current as the barrel, it didn't take long then before he caught up with it. He rowed closer to it and then used his gomu gomu powers to stretch his arms to grab it. He would have done that sooner if he could, but there was a limit to how far he could stretch. He pulled the barrel onboard and set it up right and then tried to open it. It took some doing but after destroying the lid with a rock he got it open.

Inside he found something he never thought he would see, inside a barrel at least it was pretty common outside of one. He saw a girl with short straight brown hair with some thin braids alongside her face and the rest tied up in a ponytail. She had some nice but modest curves and wore male looking clothes. she seemed to be out of it probably sleeping or unconscious from starvation. So he grabbed her by her shoulder and tried waking her up.

Natasha pov

Natasha was having a really nice dream where she was a marine admiral, and had just arrested some atrocious pirates and was having a feast in celebration. Although it was a rather typical dream for her up until now there hadn't been as much emphasis on the feast up until now but more on the award ceremony.

Now though all she could think about was that delicious succulent piece of meat in front of her. though she kept being bothered by some subordinate who was nudging her shoulder, probably so she could sign some paperwork. She sighed to herself the paperwork was the only real downside of being a marine as far as she knew back when she was a kid. Those were good times, she ignored him in favor of another sip of rum to wash down that meat. She then suddenly got jolted awake by a smack on the head.

"" Whatta what's happening "" she blurred out coming awake in a most undignified manner. She tried moving around in the barrel but had trouble doing so and nearly tipped it over if not for the steadying hand of her apparent rescuer.

"" Well I found you drifting in a barrel out on sea, is it fun can I try"' asked and answered Luffy

Natasha realized what had happened, her three miracles had actually been fulfilled. She lived, she didn't get fished up by the marines and by the looks of it she got rescued by some civilian kid a bit on the slow side. She hardly could have asked for a better outcome, now all she had to do was spin a story and show some gratitude and she was off to a new life.

She knew the marines would just log her death as killed in combat rather than betrayal and death by accident. It caused them less headaches from top brass that way, when they went over the paperwork. Marines died by the dozen against pirates, by comparison death due to natural disasters was only common in the grand line and betrayal was rare everywhere. Not to mention that if they wrote her off as died in an accident it would be weird if she was the only casualty.

Worst case for her would be if they classified it as desertion but that would reflect badly on captain Nezumi as well so it was unlikely. If it did happen however her plan would become meaningless and she would be worse off than she started.

Meanwhile the kid had stopped obsessing about the joys of cruising the sea in a wine barrel. "' Hey what's your name"" he asked. That brought Natasha up short, she hadn't given much thought to a new name, mostly because it was so unlikely that she would actually survive.

She quickly picked one she had thought about before and gave it "" My name is Miria nice to meet you"" said Natasha. She would have preferred something like Natalie or sasha but that was too similar to her old name and wasn't practical in the long run. If she ever made a name for herself or someone from her old live saw her. it would be game over and she would get a bounty on her head no questions asked. unless she made herself extremely useful to the top brass somehow and she wasn't willing to do that anytime soon.

""'I'm luffy nice to meet you too, so where are you from. And how did you get in the barrel""

Natasha/ Miria thought fast and said """ I was aboard a merchant ship that got attacked by pirates in the confusion I hid in one of the barrels. The merchants tried to get away by loosing excess weight and dropped me overboard unknowingly. "' she fibbed

"" So you're a coward then"" said luffy bluntly

"" I guess so "' said Natasha/ Miria not really caring if the kid thought of her as a coward. She couldn't say she had fearlessly sailed into a giant whirlpool to escape the marines now could she ?

The boy didn't seem too happy about her answer but shrugged it off. """Wanna come to town with me then, you must be hungry and I haven't caught anything yet"" he said

""Yes thank you very much and also thank you for rescuing me"" she thanked politely realizing she hadn't thanked him yet which was somewhat rude. she hoped he wouldn't hold It against her and just chalk it up to her dazed state from starvation.

""'You're welcome Miria"" he politely replied

They each grabbed an oar and rowed together towards shore. Natasha noticed they were really far out to sea as she could barely see the coast. "" Do you always fish this far from the coast"' she asked

"" Nah but your barrel got caught in the waves and I had to chase it for a long time. It kept going further away .""

Natasha instantly realized that without this boy she would have starved to death inside that barrel as the current they were now fighting against was strong and would undoubtedly have carried her far into the middle of the ocean. The more she thought about it the more she was sure she should have stuck with plan A and torched the place or at least come up with a plan C.

Regardless she now owed this boy a immeasurable debt that she could never repay. "" Hey how old are you anyway"" she asked half out of curiosity and another to pass the time. "" I'm fifteen and you"" he said "" I'm eighteen"' she replied and awkward silence then descended on the boat.

Luffy point of view

Luffy was oblivious to the awkward silence and was considering other important matters such as what would be for dinner. He didn't catch anything and Dadan was mad at him so he couldn't really bring a house guest over, so that left going to Fuusha village and getting a meal there.

He had some money saved up from selling some fish. But going to a restaurant or bar wasn't his preference. They asked too much money for the food and so he couldn't eat his fill. But he knew that shipwrecked people needed food to recover and this girl still seemed a bit pale. Like she could faint any moment although she still rowed better than most girls he knew. That gave her a bit more respect in Luffy's eyes. Maybe she wasn't that big of a coward as he thought if she could pull through on a empty stomach. ( To luffy a empty stomach is one of the most debilitating injuries imaginable).

He also only now noticed she had a really delicate face with deep brown eyes and cherry colored lips. He idly wondered how much she could eat with those. He hoped she wasn't like Makino who worried about her figure so much that she refused to eat much of anything except a salad. She was one of those girls that said they were watching their weight. But Makino had a very slim body so he never got her obsession with it.

He really loved talking about food but those girls only talked about how fattening they were and only discussed gross food to lose weight. It was like they didn't get the point of eating meat in the first place. He frequently had arguments with them when they complained about his diet and the lack of green stuff in it. He really hoped she wouldn't be as annoying as them and he knew she didn't need that crap either.

Natasha pov

Miria was struggling to make conversation but didn't know what to talk about. She had expected some follow up questions but there were none. Her sketchy back story was taken for granted other than some disappointment over her lack of courage and that was it. Off they were to his hometown with not a care in the world.

She expected the kid to be a bit too much on the trusting side but this was getting ridiculous. She was torn about hoping if there were some sensible people in the village or not. if there were she would have someone to talk to and also to avoid talking to. As it could cause problems for her if they kept asking pushy questions and she got her story mixed up.

He took her to a small bar and introduced her to a girl named Makino and made some small talk. She repeated her back story and filled it in here and there. She suddenly was an aspiring merchant who travelled on that ship hoping to earn enough to later buy her own ship. Or some such nonsense, she only bothered listening to herself spout such drivel because she had to remember it. so she wouldn't trip over her own lies.

It didn't matter too much though she would stay for a few months at least to make it up to the kid. and then she would set out again to somehow foil those slave traders. She had only been able to glance at the evidence she gathered but she knew that the marines were bribed to look the other way and knew exactly where they were. She had to look it over more closely for the specifics later but that could wait.

She also had to use these months to actually earn some money to hire some bounty hunters or something. She had trained hard in the marine academy but knew she couldn't take those slave traders on by herself. She needed help or at least a distraction so she could get in and out unnoticed and free the slaves. She slowly nibbled her food away to ease her aching stomach into it. It wasn't a good idea to suddenly chug down a barrel of water after starving of thirst for days. She was more likely to throw it back up than to actually keep it down and let it do some good.

This seemed to disappoint the boy even more. She got the distinct impression he wanted her to be a brave warrior who could eat and party with the best of them. Although she was most definitely brave in her book she wasn't much of a glutton. But the disappointment was starting to get to her a bit. She wanted her savior to at least like her, she didn't have anyone else who knew her after all. Not anymore now that she was presumed dead.

she also had to throw out her money to make room for the evidence and training manual. Both of those were worth more than a few million belli but this also meant that she was stuck in this town whether she liked to or not for a few months at least. She could claim showing gratitude to the boy was the reason for staying in her mind. but most likely she would have to mooch off him some more before she could repay him.

"" So where are you going to stay"' asked Makino

Miria shrugged "" I don't have any money so I'll just camp out in the mountains till I find a job""

"" You can't stay up there, mount Corbo is full of dangerous animals"' warned Makino making hand gestures to emphasize her point

"" Don't worry I'm sure I'll be fine"" assured Miria she had after all gotten excellent grades in survival training, in no small part thanks to her camping trips she had taken with her parents when she was a kid. The brutal training designed to prepare her for the worst had a nostalgic feeling for Natasha ,that she fully embraced. She was the only one of the few to actually sign up for extra lessons, despite her passing grade just to re-live her joyful memories some more.

"" But didn't you run away from those pirates, some of those animals are tougher than most people in this village"" said Makino trying to make clear the danger of the mountain to this girl who was clearly still sick.

Miria noticed that she had suddenly attracted the interest of that boy again. Who had up until now mostly ignored her and just concentrated on eating, apparently camping out in the mountains was a good thing in his book. She smiled at least they had something in common she thought and answered "" There is a big difference between most animals and pirates too, at least the ones here in east blue."' This answer didn't seem to mollify Makino at all and was about to protest some more when.

'''' I'll show you around then"" said the black haired boy excitedly

He took her by the hand and pulled her towards the forest despite the protests of Makino. They spent the entire day together exploring the forest. He showed her where the animal trails were, which plants were poisonous and how to avoid the more dangerous animals and of course how to catch them and cook them. Talking about food seemed to put this boy into a state of bliss. He was dreamily describing all the wonderful foods in the forest when she interrupted"" Well how about I cook some of them, I have a bit of chef training"'

The boy now had stars in his eyes like she was the best thing he had ever seen. He thanked her and together they caught a alligator. She carefully skinned it as the leather would be useful later. And then cooked it. After his first bite he was proclaiming her to be the best. She guessed it was true that the way to a man's heart was through his stomach at least this one's was.


	3. a pleasant day in the market place with

Chapter three: a pleasant day in the market place with a twenty percent chance of dying forecasted

She spent two weeks living with Luffy in the mountains. He had built his own shelter but said he used to live with Dadan and before that in the village. She didn't know who Dadan was at first but when she found out she was sorely tempted to exterminate her, when she heard the two words mountain bandits. She only held back because of how much she meant to the boy who saved her.

It wasn't a good idea to kill the mother figure of your savior after all, bad karma and all that. Not to mention that it was the height of bad manners. Though she still had a hard time grasping that maybe not all pirates were bad. At least according to Luffy who could go on endlessly about his brother Ace and Shanks. Though they had to be different people than the famous red haired Shanks and that super rookie Ace.

She and Luffy went down to Fuusha town to sell the leather goods she had made from the animal hides. She had learned a few tricks from watching her father work the leather. When she was a little girl with nothing better to do. Though it wasn't much as she had never been apprenticed to him being too young back then and then determined to be a marine after the raid. But it would give her some start up cash to get started on her plans. If she was lucky she could get a small boat and then capture a pirate with a small bounty. And then use that money to hire the help she would need.

She was also considering asking Luffy to come along as he was really strong and had his heart in the right place. He was invulnerable to bullets and his punch was really strong as well for his age. She had sparred with him every now and then but mostly she had gone off by herself at night to train the techniques described in the training manual.

Today She was going to haggle with the local merchants while Luffy wandered about until she was done so they could go fishing together. "" Hello Hoshino san how are you today "'

"" Oh hello dear I'm fine but have you heard, the marines came by looking for someone."' she said switching into gossip mode

Miria's blood went cold they couldn't have been searching for her could they. ""Who were they looking for"' asked Miria as steadily as she could whilst surreptitiously casting a glance at the harbor

''Don't know only heard about it second hand but apparently it was some woman who stole something from them. '' said Hoshino

Miria got really nervous now there couldn't be that many female thieves the corrupt marines would actually bother to look for right. She couldn't just cut her losses and run just yet either. She wasn't spotted yet so her best bet was to simply walk away without causing a ruckus. She calmly but quickly went through the negotiations not bothering to get the best deals and losing some money because of it but she didn't care. The sooner she got back up the mountains and farther away from the marines the better she would feel. She had looked at the identification number on the ships side and it belonged to her old base meaning she was dead if some crew member spotted her.

She got away as fast as possible barely waiting to get her money before leaving. As she made her way out of town. Luffy yelled "" Hey where are you going ! I thought we were going fishing after you were done ?"''

"" Change of plans I feel more like hunting right now then sitting in that boat all day "' Miria quickly fibbed to avoid an argument in the middle of the street and drawing the notice of the marines. So far they hadn't looked twice her way but that could also be an act. She hoped they wouldn't recognize her out of uniform. She had borrowed some spares from Makino who was decidedly more feminine than she was and that was paying dividends right now. No one who knew her would envision her walking around in a short skirt a light blue blouse and a beret ensemble that gave off a overall look of cuteness rather than the tough and serious look she would usually go for.

Luffy gave her a weird look but didn't say anything further. She knew she was going to have to explain things once they got back to Luffy's hut. She would need his help desperately if she was going to make it out of this alive. There was no way she was going anywhere near that town anytime soon. She was just going to hole up in that little hut until the marines went away and looked elsewhere. She could ask Luffy to find out when they would leave but he would ask questions then if she was hiding from the government. He may be overly accepting of bandits and other pirates but she doubted that even he would accept a fugitive with the marines on his doorstep without a proper explanation.

/

They arrived at his hut and Miria went straight inside and grabbed the sake bottle she kept there for herself under her bed. She had some reservations at first about sleeping in the same house let alone a hut with a boy she hardly knew, but he had been a perfect gentleman so far. His only flaw was that he kept leaving his stuff all over the place and she would have to nag at him to clean up after himself.

Overall it was a ideal situation for her, most people didn't see her face much and so wouldn't remember it when asked or given a description. She could disappear without notice as no one really knew her yet anyway, only Luffy and Makino knew her. She had done a meet and greet with the mayor but that was it. Makino accepted from the beginning that she would leave soon and Luffy though he might miss her accepted that as well. No surprise there seeing as it was his ambition to leave as soon as he turned seventeen according to Makino. Until then she had no problems living together with him and sharing the chores with him.

She never had to worry about him peeking or doing something weird to her. He mostly treated her like a male friend just one of the guys with some privacy issues. Though he seemed to lack every kind of table manners imaginable he did still knock before entering her room. Heck he even built her a separate room without any prompting from her. Although she would appreciate the occasional glance her way after roughing it in the jungle for the last two weeks.

"' So what was up with you running from the marines just now"' asked Luffy slosing the door behind him

Natasha sighed "" Well first off I should tell you I lied about where I came from. I wasn't a merchant on a ship attacked by pirates""

"" Okay, what really happened then"' said Luffy eagerly accepting she wasn't a helpless girl both because he wanted to believe it and because he had seen her kill quite a few ferocious animals by herself.

"" My hometown got attacked by pirates when I was eleven so I grew up hating pirates and I wanted to make a difference. So I joined the marines when I turned eighteen but the marine base where I was stationed at was corrupt""

"" Whadda ya mean"" asked Luffy though he accepted that the marines weren't saints as they took orders from the world nobles to shoot Sabo out of the water. He didn't expect them to be evil, without the nobles telling them to be. Not after all the honorable stories he heard from his gramps.

"" They weren't arresting pirates to stop them from harassing civilians. They were arresting them so they could squeeze bribe money out of them. Whenever they caught someone they let him go if he could pay the necessary amount."" explained Miria saving the worst for last. If he didn't believe her then it was best to start off with something light and non damaging to her. In case he started asking other people around town for their opinions.

Luffy had flash backs to what shanks had told him when he was seven and this only confirmed it. The marines were corrupt and the world nobles were evil which was proven by Sabo. He really disliked the world order and just wanted to be free of it all even more than before and the only way to do that was to become the pirate king.

"" I see, what did you do "" prompted Luffy curious to see how she responded to the unfairness in the world.

"" Well I wanted to go ream out my captain but I couldn't do that because they were watching me all the time. To see if I could be included in their little scam or had to be eliminated. So I planned my escape and my going away present. " said Miria with a gleam in her eyes proud of her work and happy that he was seemingly taking this so well.

"'What kind of present "" asked Luffy getting drawn into the story

"" Well I knew I could never leave the marines now that I knew their secret without a bounty so I faked my own death. I also stole a devil fruit and crucial evidence from the captains office. If I can somehow get this to a high ranking marine officer. I can get captain Nezumi arrested or barring that I can put a stop to his side deals myself"'

""What kind of evidence"' asked Luffy scratching his head unsure of himself. He wasn't too interested in this investigative stuff. It was one of the reason why he never wanted to be a marine he preferred to just go up to the bad guy and bash his head in than go around collecting receipts and seeing if it all added up.

"' It shows his connections to several slave traders who are getting off scot free by bribing him. among others are letters showing their agreement on the price of covering up their attacks. such as them attacking a village or ship and selling off the people in it as slaves. "" said Miria carefully and clearly. He had passed her test and seemed open to the idea but she had to make clear that she wasn't just hurling wild accusations. That she did in fact have hard evidence to back up her claim.

"" What that bastard I'll kill him "' raged Luffy his eyes burning with fury, his mouth turned to shark teeth and his veins on his head pulsed while his muscled bulged like they were itching to pound something into dust for a second.

Miria was really pleased with this response you couldn't fake that much rage easily without it seeming like an badly scripted act. And the kid was definitely no actor so he really cared about this and was likely to help her. She thanked her lucky stars again that she didn't end up being saved by a spineless greedy fisherman who would have sold her out to the marines. The stings of his disappointment due to her seemingly lack of courage were all worth It now. She had someone she could trust and that was worth more than some hurt feelings.

After a while Luffy calmed down enough to ask "" Hey how did you fake your death anyway. If you ransacked this captains office they must have been in hot pursuit"'

Miria smirked this was going to be so worth it "" They were, I got a fully manned battleship on my tail, while I was in a ordinary dinghy."' she said while reclining back into her seat and fully enjoying the moment.

"" Whatta how did you get away in that "" asked luffy incredulously he believed some pretty outrageous tales without batting an eyelash at it but outrunning a battleship in a dinghy seemed unbelievable even to him.

Miria smiled even wider "" Simple I rowed into a giant whirlpool"" and left it at that

Luffy was struck speechless his mouth was gaping wide open. He had done some stupid things, but willingly rowing into a whirlpool was a bit much even for him. ( cough hypocrite cough)

"" Seriously"' asked luffy with his mouth on the ground literally thanks to his gomu gomu powers. "' Yep that was why I was cruising along the seas in a barrel "" said Miria matter of factly while barely containing her laughter at his expression.

"" Yeah I guess that makes sense. So what you gonna do about those slave traders. I know a high ranking marine but he only stops by here every once in a while so there's no telling how long it will be before he shows up."' said Luffy snapping back to the main problem to distract Miria while he got over the shock of the escape.

Miria was amazed that he recovered from her most daring escape just like that. But she shrugged it off in favor of more important things "' Which high ranking officer "' she hoped it was at least commodore level to have the clout to do something about the corruption. But got knocked off her feet when he answered calmly "'My gramps vice admiral Garp""

she was absolutely floored the hero of the marines. The one who had captured the pirate king himself! he could move mountains with just a den den mushi call. Every aspiring marine looked up to him, the man was a legend. She knew that even that corrupt captain would fall over himself to please him right up to the point where Garp would slap the cuffs on him. "" Seriously"" she asked

""Yeah why " he said nonplussed back in his comfort zone again where he was doing the shocking.

Clearly this brat didn't know how big of a legend his grandfather was or maybe he was just used to it. But most likely he didn't care as he seemed to idolize pirates more than marines. "' Don't you realize how big of a legend your grandfather is. Every rookie marine hopes to someday do a tenth of the things he's done""

" I don't care I don't wanna be a stupid marine, I am going to be the pirate king"" he yelled

And there it was, the question answered she had been dreading to ask ever since she found out he was friends with bandits and idolized his pirate friends. She would have mercilessly cut him down not a few weeks ago if it meant a promotion. But she had come to realize that not all marines were good and this boy even if he was going to be a pirate would probably be a good one but she had to ask"" What do you think being the pirate king even means ?"''

He answered without any hesitation "' The guy with the most freedom in the world is the pirate king"'

"" Freedom ? … you can be free without being a pirate"' she said not understanding this seemingly childish notion. Maybe this kid had just romanticized being a pirate and could be reformed back into a respectable citizen with a bit of hard truth.

"" No you can't, marines have to follow all kinds of stupid rules and are slaves to the world nobles. And the world nobles oppress everyone and kill you for no reason. Being a civilian is better but they are still left at the mercy of pirates and marines alike. But a pirate doesn't have to listen to anyone not the world nobles, the marines or other pirates they are the most free of all."' Luffy passionately explained

Miria had to smile at that answer it was true and she knew it. Although she didn't know much about the world nobles but she did know they ruled over everyone and that the marines weren't as propaganda made them out to be. So maybe pirates weren't all bad either although she would never forget or forgive those who raided her town and killed her parents. She could however accept the adventure seeking type of pirate and she would be fine if this boy became one. But she wondered if he accepted that not all pirates were freedom loving adventurers.

"" What would you do about other pirates who enslaved other people'"

"" My idol once told me that some people can't just be beaten up and then hope the problem goes away. They have to be killed to solve it. And pirates who kill civilians are those people and slave traders are the lowest of the low. "" answered Luffy with conviction

Miria smiled again maybe she could alter her plan a bit and become a pirate with this guy instead of a bounty hunter. They agreed on most things even though she didn't quite see the appeal of a pirate's life. She might be willing to stick by Luffy until he either made pirate king or became a lowlife himself. And maybe one day she would tell him her real name and take him to visit Collinsport her hometown.

By that time no one would recognize her anymore as Natasha and reputation was becoming less important to her by the day. she had just wanted to stop bad guys as a little kid. her obsession of joining the marines was only an attempt to fulfill that dream. if she could do the same as a pirate then who cares what the close minded people of the world thought. The only ones she cared about thought her dead already anyway.

/

Miria holed up in the hut for the next week while Luffy gathered information. He had strict orders to just bother Makino and no one else though. Luffy was too impulsive and clumsy to allow him near anyone else without causing a scene. Makino was used to him and would write off him being pushy about the subject as his normal behavior. He came back with some good news though apparently they weren't looking for a brown haired girl but a orange haired one. Miria didn't know to curse or thank this mystery thief for bringing the marines to her doorstep or for distracting them.

/

Two days later

She called Luffy to a clearing after the marines were gone.

"" Luffy we have no idea how long it is going to take before your grandfather shows up and I want to put a stop to those slave traders as soon as possible so we are going to train to get strong enough to take them on"'

"' How are we going to do that "' asked Luffy enthusiastic about getting stronger.

""One of the things I stole from my captain's office is this training manual for higher ranked marines with their special techniques in it and how to learn them."" Miria said while holding the book casually to her side but still clearly displaying it.

"' What kind of techniques"' he asked while bouncing up and down like a over eager dog wanting to play.

"' Well according to this book: you can move in the blink of an eye, walk on air and cut things with a kick of your leg and more. "'

"" Really what is the book called"' asked luffy

"' Hmm let's see, ah… it's called 'Rokushiki for beginners'. It's a handwritten book given to my captain Nezumi by some guy called Spandam."'

"" Who is that "'

"" No idea, probably some other corrupt guy higher up the food chain who wanted to move his henchmen up the ladder with this book" said Miria

"'I guess so. But let's get started already okay"' said Luffy impatiently already itching to try and kick something in half.

"" Sure, first of is Soru it is the basis for all the other techniques where you kick the floor ten times in rapid succession to gain a burst of speed.""

"' Weird I don't get it"" said Luffy who tried and looked like he was treading water on land.

"" Just keep doing it "' said Miria not getting it either even after trying it for the last two weeks, all she got was a slightly faster dash out of it. Whoever wrote the damn book wasn't a great writer as the instructions and examples were vague at best and confusing and contradictory at worst. She was already wondering if instead of a plan to move her former captain up the ladder. If someone had purposefully sabotaged him to keep him from doing more wrong or because he was part of a rival corrupt group. Whether that meant the enemy of her enemy was good or not or even her friend was still up for debate.

/

The two spent six weeks getting the gist of Soru although they were by no means master of the technique it was enough to cross open areas without getting spotted by small time crooks. Miria would have preferred to learn more techniques but was anxious to get going to stop the slave operation. Every day she delayed the more time the slave traders had to move their operations. Although her ride on the whirlpool express should have convinced Nezumi that she wasn't a threat anymore. She wasn't willing to see him take precautions regardless on the premise that she might have send the evidence by mail to someone.

They took Luffy's small dinghy to go to Rakyat island where the slaves were being kept according to captain Nezumi notes. It was quite a long way from Dawn island where they were but they couldn't delay in hoping to find a better ship. They could always steal a ship from the slavers to transport the slaves back home.

Luffy said his goodbyes to his friends and said he was going on a fishing expedition. It wasn't a complete lie as he was taking all his fishing gear and he would undoubtedly fish for most of his meals. Heck even If she had a marine battleship under her command she would still order him to catch his own meals. That kid could eat more than five hundred men combined. If he was ever left alone in the pantry of the ship, they would be out of food in under an hour. She might one day even send him on a infiltration mission to sabotage some enemies' food supply. Forget rats and other diseases just throw Luffy in there and it would be down to crumbs in under an hour guaranteed.

It did however help that no one would think it odd that he might show up empty handed or why he thought it worthwhile to go deep sea fishing with such a small boat. Simply because he would eat any big fish seconds after he caught it, raw if he had to.

They set off alternating between rowing duty. It wasn't that there wasn't enough room for them to row together but it was just more effective if they rowed in turn. No one could keep up the same strain of labor even small ones indefinitely without rest and rowing together didn't make them that much faster. So Luffy rowed during the day and she would row during the night. This was mostly so she could adjust their course using the guidance of the stars after Luffy steered them in the slightly wrong way. This resulted in a snake like course slithering its way to Rakyat island. She would have preferred to go straight but that meant she had to stay up all the time and some meandering was acceptable as even with the delays of course adjustments it still shaved days of their travel time as Luffy was highly energetic and rowed with more vigor and longer than she could.


	4. Chapter 4 A chance encounter

Chapter four: a chance encounter

In the middle of the sea

One day she was shaken awake by Luffy " What is it Luffy"' she asked

"" Pirates up ahead'' he simply said

I looked at the flag and didn't recognize them meaning they were some of the lesser skilled pirates.

""'What do you want to do"' asked Luffy

He seemed to defer to me for the moment despite his dream to captain his own crew. That was another point in his favor. A lot of people didn't take well to advice and she hoped he would never lose it. "" I don't recognize that flag so it's a weakling probably, so if we take over his ship it will be faster than rowing the rest of the way. And we'll actually have some room to transport the slaves we rescue'' argued Miria

"" okay no problem, now let's get their attention"" said Luffy cupping his hands around his mouth

"' Huh what are you going to do"' asked Miria worriedly

""Hey you shitfaced cowardly pirates come out and face me like a man! "' he yelled out loudly and it really carried well and presumably far off into the distance.

"" You idiot what if they decide to hit us with canon fire before we even get close."" Said Miria angrily and smacked him upside the head.

"' Hmm oops didn't think of that "" said Luffy apologetically while scratching the back of his head

Miria groaned in annoyance one of these days that kid was going to be the death of her. As luck would have it the pirate ship came closer and was more interested in taunting them back rather than actually recognize them as a threat, big mistake.

"" What a pathetic sight, looks like some shipwrecked survivors got sunstroke and went crazy"' joked the pirate captain

"" Yeah too bad they aint got any booty, though the girl might fetch a nice price if we bring her to Alexander. "' said another

This perked Miria's attention apparently these pirates were slave traders or at least connected to them. "" Luffy lets play along until we find out more about that Alexander guy"" Miria whispered to Luffy. He nodded back signaling his agreement.

Miria was a bit unsure on how to prompt them into spilling more information but a plea for mercy might be a good place to start. Hopefully they would start gloating smugly about what they were going to do to them. "" Please forgive my friend he's a bit on the slow side so please have mercy on us and just let us go please"" Miria pleaded with as much conviction as she could.

The pirates laughed in her face "" As if we would just let you go, you'll fetch a nice price and he can always be used as cheap labor. "'

"'Please don't take us to Alexander "' Miria tried again hoping for some scrap of useful information other than taunts.

"''Heh she might have heard of Alexander. I guess the psycho's reputation has spread even to civilians. Hmm that might be a problem, we'll have to warn him about it if he gets caught he might spill the beans on us too. ""

Miria was out of patience now "" Screw this, Luffy lets beat em up and make them tell us"' shouted Miria grabbing her pistol and firing at a unlucky pirate.

"" Yosh lets go"' Luffy shouted and extended his arms to pull himself on the ship

It was a relatively small ship with only a crew of thirty or maybe fifty pirates but they still outnumbered Luffy and Miria by a large margin.

The crew was momentarily stunned by Luffy's stretching arms. "" What the hell is that guy"" they yelled

Luffy replied cheerfully"' I'm a rubber man"" and then extended his leg to kick them all in the side. He then pulled Miria up from the boat who then proceeded to snipe the stragglers with her remaining three pistols and then switched to throwing daggers and closed the distance.

"" Captain koba please help us "" screamed one of the men taking cover behind some crates from Miria's gunfire. They were firing back but had trouble locking on to her as she kept moving around with soru making it impossible for them to hit her.

Koba was a tanned bald man with some stubble on his chin who wore glasses with a cracked red lens on his left eye. He was too busy trying to pump Luffy full of lead to answer but all his bullets kept being returned to him. He refused to believe his eyes that his gunman specialty was completely useless and was looking for a weak spot by aiming for the eyes. "' I'm busy, sort it out yourself its only a girl"" said Koba dismissively believing the invulnerable boy to be the bigger threat.

Luffy then went all out "" Gomu gomu gattling gun"' he yelled while throwing hundreds of punches at the pirates and destroying their cover.

Meanwhile Miria had closed the distance and was darting in between the pirates daring them to shoot and hit their friends. The pirates tried using their swords but she fearlessly stepped into their guard dodging the blow and then pierced them with her daggers. She then used the sagging bodies as shields to protect herself from bullets and swords alike.

"' You killed Kenny you bastard "" one yelled and tried to strike her with a downward blow. Miria thought didn't these guys learn by now they were out of their league. She stepped back a half step dodging the swing and then darted forward again. He tried using a upward strike but she blocked his attempt with her right hand dagger and closed the distance. When she was right in his face she smiled while placing her left hand dagger in his lower chest and twisted it, breaking his ribcage in the process. The man stared at her in horror and croaked out "' You bloody bitch"" Miria wasn't sure what kind of nickname was appropriate for her but was sure it wasn't bloody bitch. She mercilessly used the dagger to turn him sideways to catch a sword on his back and said " You know its impolite to call a lady a bitch, didn't your mother teach you better than that"" and then let him fall of her dagger and continued.

The calm conversation and everlasting smile scared the men more than the fact that she just stabbed their comrade. They were already starting to lose heart against this girl who seemed larger than life and more demon than human.

Miria saw the fear etched on her opponents faces and smiled even more to herself. She knew that half the battle was fought with morale. If you broke their morale then half the army would flee and you could capture or massacre the rest. It was the more sinister reason for the motto 'leave no man behind' she thought. By leaving no corpses behind it gave the appearance of immortality or invincibility to the enemy and they would lose their courage.

If she could somehow portrait herself as invincible these untrained undisciplined pirates would crumble. Marines used this method all the time with their unending white sea of soldiers giving them an appearance of invincibility even though they were weak individually. They however knew this lesson and wouldn't falter easily but these pirates would, so long as you took out their strongest. She had taken care not to hit them anywhere vital as she needed them alive. But she wasn't confident that she could beat the entire crew unconscious without getting seriously hurt. So she needed to play mind tricks to force them to surrender.

Back to Luffy pov

"" Do you have anything to eat around here "" Luffy asked already bored by his opponent and not in a particular rush as he saw Miria was doing fine.

Koba didn't answer the ridiculous question and just fired more bullets. He had given up on the head and other conventional places and now targeted the joints, maybe that would work.

Luffy got fed up trying to divert the bullets so they didn't hurt anyone and just prepared a gomu gomu pistol. "" Take this "" he said and punched Koba into the air and smacked him into the captain's quarters.

As soon Luffy knocked out the captain Koba k the rest lost confidence and started to falter. "' Alright you lot from now on you take orders from us you hear me"" commanded Miria

'' Yes mam"' chorused the pirate crew thoroughly cowed into submission. "" Now tell us what you know about this slave trader Alexander or I start dumping you overboard"" claimed Miria although she wasn't sure she wasn't going to do it regardless of them spilling their guts out or not.

These men had sold people into slavery and deserved to drown but doing so would make her word worthless and that wasn't something she was willing to sacrifice just yet. She guessed she could just use them as cheap labor herself until she got to Rakyat island to crew the boat. It wasn't a huge boat but still too big to be crewed by just two people.

"" We don't know much… we just take them to Valsa docks and get paid there. … Some of the wealthier slaves might get ransomed but most get sold off to somewhere else though we don't know where they end up."" Said one of the captured crew mates

'' I see anything else of note ""prodded Miria still not too happy about her lack of information except the ransom bit it wasn't anything she didn't already know. The name of the docks was useless without actually knowing where it was. But she wasn't too keen on asking for directions from these idiots most pirates were navigationally challenged. It wasn't unheard off for them to capture weak marines and force them to become their navigator. The practice had mixed results for them sometimes it worked and sometimes they got led into a marine ambush.

'' There… there is a..a monster girl held prisoner there they say"' one of the other pirates blurted out. Now this was finally some worthwhile information a possible devil fruit user whether it be a ally or enemy was always worth knowing about.

"" Speak up, what kind of monster is she"' demanded Miria whilst putting her pistol between his eyes, though it wasn't loaded anymore.

"' I heard rumors that she transforms her body into metal….. and cuts people into small pieces… the slave …slave traders captured her at a young age… and have been training her to be their special weapon."' stammered the man while looking fearfully at the barrel staring him in the face. And growing more fearful as the glare on Miria's face intensified the more he talked.

Miria was worried now a metal fruit might be at best something like that assassin Daz bones she heard off has, a powerful paramecia fruit. But at worst it could be a logia putting this kid immediately on the same level as a vice admiral. Well most logia users she heard off were at least on a vice admiral level but this girl was still young so maybe she hadn't mastered her fruit yet. Or maybe she went through horribly strict training and not only mastered it but became a emotionless killing machine.

After all young kids didn't know the difference between right or wrong yet. They could mercilessly cut a worm into three pieces and watch it bleed to death. Doing it with a somewhat of a scientific curiosity, if I do that what happens.

Children could be crueler than one would think so long as they didn't view the insects as being sentient. It was why torturing small animals was such a big sign of a serial killer. It showed that you didn't care if it had sentient life. You just wanted to toy with it for your own amusement and it could only be a matter of time until they escalated to humans.

A logia user with a penchant for murdering people was a nightmare. Although to be fair most pirates were remorseless killers too. But a logia murderer without restraint was whole lot worse. If someone like whitebeard who had the strongest paramecia fruit went from island to island sinking it, there wouldn't be a grand line left by now. The same went for most other logia users too, all three admirals could wipe out an island by themselves. Luckily there hadn't been a crazy enough person that did such a stupid thing or maybe there was but the government erased all records of it.

It was a blessing that logia fruits were so rare and were thus unlikely to end up in the hands of people who just wanted to watch the world burn or jump at their whim. Most of the time they ended up in the hands of ambitious people which was bad enough but at least they wanted to rule the world not destroy it.

Mira had to switch her focus, saving the other slaves just became a secondary objective. Whether they lived or died wasn't as important as saving that girl if she could be saved or killing her if she was already too far gone.

Miria knew that even normal people could kill so long as they viewed the person they were killing as an it rather than a person. She herself had been given lessons to dehumanize pirates by the marines. She had to watch the consequences of their deeds in brutal gory detail over and over again. Despite her personal experience making it rather redundant. She didn't need to see pictures when she still lied awake at night from seeing it in her dreams. She still had to follow the damn class though, the marines didn't allow for pirate sympathizers and tolerated no slackers in that class.

If that girl had been taught to view everything as an it except for her masters there would be no talking to her. Marines didn't listen to the cries of mercy from pirates no more than they did from civilians. Both are mere prey or inhuman monsters to them respectively and no quarter is given.

Worse still was that out of normal people 65% would obey authority even if it meant causing pain and suffering to other humans despite being uncomfortable with it. If that was combined with dehumanization then that girl really could become a perfect killing machine.

She had learned this in the town library seeking for an answer for why the pirates could be so cruel. She had found out then that anyone could be but some were just born without a conscience and used authority roles to torment more people. This combined with the note that it was hereditary convinced her of the need to kill all evil people to prevent them spreading their taint across society. Ironically she herself dehumanized a entire group of people and had since realized her flaw in only considering pirates evil but wasn't daunted in her overall mission to exterminate evil people.

This girls conscience however wouldn't recognize all humans as a person anymore but as an it and conscience doesn't work for its only persons. Because it derives its power from connectedness and love of one's friends and loved ones. And if she saw her masters as an legitimate authority figure it would take away any responsibility she might feel for the atrocious acts she committed under his orders. She wouldn't think she did something wrong and even if she did, she would shift the blame to her master.

Miria got some more general information about watch posts and important buildings on the island and then commanded them to set sail at once. "" So what do you want to do with Koba "" asked luffy referring to the pirate captain still tied up against the mast

"" He only has a bounty of a hundred thousand belli so he isn't much of a threat to us if we let him go. But he might stir up the crew to mutiny against us and I can't be bothered putting down a mutiny when were rescuing those slaves peacefully. But sadly we need them to crew this damn ship so we need them alive and to keep them alive they can't do anything stupid. "" explained Miria

"" Guess so, and after we're done rescuing. ""

"" Hmm we can't let him go so we'll hand him over to the marines. Though he might just be let go, the bastard isn't much of a fighter but slave trade should at least earn him a million belli bounty. So he is either unknown to the government or he pays them off. ""

"" We'll hand him in and then scope out the place for a week or two. If they let him go we'll know they are corrupt too. Then we can decide how to handle those bastards as well."" Said Luffy confidently

Miria was shocked did he actually say something smart, maybe he was more clever than he let on. Miria put it to the back of her mind and agreed with him. They spent a comfortable ride to Rakyat island just sitting underneath the shade watching the men work or training their rokushiki moves. Miria especially was focusing hard on the soru technique.

"" You're still training"' asked Luffy having already stopped for lunch and was gauging out half of the pirates' food stores.

"" Luffy if you compare an devastating punch and a flurry of a thousand weak punches which one is better"" asked Miria drenched in sweat from exertion

"" Hmmm the devastating punch of course as soon as you hit him he's down and you win""

Miria smiled "' that is if you hit him, there are plenty of marines who are muscle-bound idiots who can hurt even you despite being rubber but will never hit you because they are too slow""

"" So they're idiots because they can't hit me""'clarified Luffy

"" Exactly those thousands weak punches will build damage over time and equate to the same damage of one devastating punch unless your made of rubber."' said Miria cutting off Luffy's argument that weak punches couldn't hurt him.

"' That takes forever and is so not cool"" moaned Luffy

Miria laughed "" Sure scurrying around like insects feels demeaning but ants can take down a lion. you should get used to that concept the marines rely on it more than anything else. "'

"" So your training to become an ant"' asked Luffy cheekily

Miria dashed behind Luffy and smacked him over the head "" I'm training so I can land a decisive blow before people even realize I'm there."' she lectured

"' Okay correction coward then"' amended Luffy

Miria groaned it was like he was stuck to some noble ideals of chivalry where you only attacked from the front and gave proper warning. Yes saying' I'm going to attack now' against a superior opponent will definitely ensure your survival she thought sarcastically. That would only give you some measure of mercy after he's done kicking your ass at best, maybe a quick and clean death if they were feeling charitable.

She tried it a different approach "" Luffy would you say gunman are cowards "

"' Well ya they hide far away and run away as soon as you get close"' Luffy argued

Miria smiled he had eaten the bait whole and now to reel him in "' So that Ben Beckman you told me about is a coward"" she could see the internal fight between childhood hero worship of this guy and his foolish ideals on his scrunched up face.

after a while he said "' No Ben wasn't a coward he fought using his rifle in close range too"" satisfied that he had found a workaround

Miria was unfazed "' Of course he knows how to fight in close range, flintlock rifles only allow for a few shots before the enemy closes the distance, unless you have friends covering you. But he still uses it as his main weapon until he is forced to resort to using it as a club."'

That brought Luffy up short he couldn't deny that Lucky roo had only fired one shot and Beckman had fought close range with a rifle and wiped the floor with the bandits. He had heard the story after he confronted shanks. But for close range a rifle as a club was far from ideal as the barrel could be dented and be rendered useless. So it wouldn't make sense unless he was used to using it in a pinch after being confronted by a enemy.

"" Luffy a well placed shot can take out strong guys but it takes a long time to set it up. and once they know you're around they can dodge it, apparently every bounty above fifty million can shrug bullets of with ease. "'

"" They don't earn that much bounty without being able to deal with the rank and file's favorite weapon"" agreed Luffy who never liked the over reliance of the marines on firearms.

"" That's true Luffy but don't you see how that's a problem for me "" prodded Miria

"" Hmm nah not really"' said Luffy not seeing the connection between grand line legends shrugging of bullets and Miria.

Miria sighed "" Luffy I can't beat men in raw strength unless I go through grueling training and even then the returns will be less than men. So unless I use a weapon I can't offset the difference in muscle. ""

"" So just use a sword that's a cool weapon "' said Luffy non plussed still not seeing the problem

"" That's an option but I still can't clash swords and expect to push back my male opponents. I can become a great swordswoman but becoming the greatest will be difficult to say the least. ""

"" Are you saying you can't beat them just because they are men "' asked Luffy not liking her defeatist attitude

"' No that's not it, I would be fine if I just roamed around east blue or the other four great seas like north blue. But the grand line is a different story if I don't find some way to overcome it and train now I'll become deadweight there"" said Miria. she was loath to become a deadweight or damsel in distress. Those stories about defenseless women waiting for their knight in shining armor to rescue them sickened her.

"" Okay that's good then"' said Luffy glad that she wasn't giving up already but had her eye on the far off future. He was hoping to convince her to become part of his crew and seeing her already thinking about how to tackle the grand line only reaffirmed his decision.

"' Luffy we might face a logia opponent in less than a week. Even on the grand line those are the toughest you can possibly face."" warned Miria hoping to impress the seriousness of the situation on him.

"" So we need to train more"" concluded Luffy simply

Well basically that's what it came down to thought Miria "" Well yes, I have been thinking about those styles in that training book and I think we should focus only on soru, rankyaku and geppo and in that order" she said

"' How come, the other ones sound cool too""

"" Tekkai is hardening your skin to resemble iron but it's still blood and flesh so even cheap swords will cut through it, also it only works for blunt attacks up until a point. It might improve your rubber defense marginally but its negligible for now"'

"" What about you then it's cool if you could take someone's strongest attack without blinking"" argued Luffy

"' Yes why not just let my opponent hit me with their strongest attacks when I could also just dodge it with soru, that definitely sounds like a winning strategy"" said Miria sarcastically. the most glaring weakness of tekkai in her book was that you had to stand there and take it, that was not her kind of mindset. Not to mention that it took master level to be able to move around with it active so unless you had master level it was useless to her. She wasn't going to learn it anytime soon if it took years before it started to show worthwhile results.

"' okay what about kami e then that sounds like something you might be interested in"" said Luffy referring to the dodging technique

"" It would if kami e wasn't so vaguely described that all I got from the book, was that I had to relax and no attack would hit me, yeah and islands can fly"" she said sarcastically.

"" hey islands might fly "" argued Luffy

Miria wasn't willing to argue about nonsensical things so just admitted defeat "' Sorry didn't mean to imply they didn't"" she said holding up her hands in a hold it gesture and not meaning one word of it.

Luffy moved on not willing to argue too much either and said "" And what about this shigan technique it sounds useful.""

"' It is for you, you could stretch your fingers into piercing tentacles or spears"' she suddenly got a bad vibe from that thought and moved on. "" For me it's useless I can use a dagger just as well or aim for the recommended vital spots with a rifle so isn't worth learning for me.""

luffy wasn't too happy with her rejecting so many potentially useful techniques out of hand but could understand her logic.

"" So you really only want to learn soru geppo and rankyaku"' luffy confirmed

"" Yeah soru is essential for basic fighting and geppo is a must for both of us if we fight near sea water. If either one of us falls in its instant game over, neither of us can jump in to save the other."" explained Miria

"" How come you can't, I thought marines learned how to swim at least"'

"" We do you idiot, oh wait I haven't told you yet have I "" said Miria. She actually did but forgot herself.

"" Told me what"" asked Luffy

"" One of the things I stole from my captain is a devil fruit"" She explained

Luffy got stars in his eyes and jumped up and down asking " What does it do, how come you haven't shown me yet, show me show me""

Miria smacked him upside the head again to calm him down "' I would if I could, but I still haven't figured out what it does yet. Worst case it's a useless power and I am a hammer for life""

"' Why don't you just look it up in that book"" asked Luffy

"" I tried looking it up in Vegapunks catalog but it isn't listed, and it didn't have any obvious clues like a snowflake design so I'm stuck not knowing for now"' said Miria thoroughly frustrated with her fruit predicament.

Luffy was meanwhile thinking about finding a non devil fruit user to help bail them out. He thought geppo was a good idea but it would be better to have more than one failsafe measure.

"' Anyway we need to focus on soru, I would like to learn geppo and rankyaku too but there is no way we can learn that before we reach Rakyat island. Geppo and rankyaku are useful secondary techniques and will be crucial later on but right now we don't need them as much. "' continued Miria ignoring her devil fruit situation for the moment

"" How come geppo and rankyaku won't be that useful"" asked Luffy

"' Besides not having enough time to learn it to a usable level . There is not much point to floating mid air in the middle of an island. They will show their value more on open sea when we can slice ships in half from a distance and have free movement in the air while our opponents are sitting ducks on their ships. "' explained Miria somewhat cheered up by the thought of picking off her opponents with impunity.

Miria kept quiet about the fact that they would be lucky to just get soru down in time. She knew that right now it was more of a fast dash than the instant movement that it could become. They wouldn't be able to move fast enough so that their opponent lost sight of them anytime soon, but that was fine for now. They were going to die if they went up against a logia type with soru or not, so it didn't really matter.


	5. Chapter 5 The landing

Chapter five : The landing

A week later they arrived at Raykhat island in the early hours of the morning. They had timed their journey to arrive at this time so that they wouldn't get spotted by the guards in the watchtowers. They were supposed to watch around the clock but the pirates on board knew they liked to sleep in or doze off in the early hours. So there was a small window of opportunity around five am and six am.

The island itself was covered in steep cliffs and hills and luscious green forests full of wildlife. It would be impossible to find out where the slaves where without combing the entire island by foot but it did give them the option of stealth if they took it. Though she doubted she even could with Luffy right beside her screaming about the possible adventures he might have on this island. She groaned internally, she was getting used to it though.

She wasn't sure how to approach the island, she could use the boat but that would get spotted as soon as the guards woke up and a dinghy wouldn't. The guards would recognize the jolly roger and might be lulled into a sense of safety but would still investigate it. She also couldn't trust the crew to stick around and tying them up wasn't an option either if she wanted them to pick her up. Miria groaned again she really needed a reliable crew not some cutthroats cowed into submission that would run as soon as she turned her back or worse put a dagger in it.

""Lets land near that cliff "' said Luffy in a voice that brooked no argument. Miria looked and spotted the cliff he was talking about. It was semi circular and was high enough to shield their ship from view. It would be a pain to get the slaves on board as it was surrounded by sharp rocks. But she supposed they could always maneuver the ship closer to the beach if they had to rush out of there and it wouldn't be a problem in a stealthy operation so long as they didn't get ambushed.

They soon moored the boat as close to the cliffs as they dared and then tied up the crew to make sure they didn't go anywhere. "" Hey Luffy want to be a ninja "" Miria asked

"" Yes "' he answered without hesitation

Hook line and sinker "' Well ninja's are super quiet and don't let anyone know they're there. They can walk a mile right behind someone and that person will never notice they are there. They are that good"'

""Cool"" said Luffy with stars in his eyes. It was just too easy sometimes to manipulate him "" Okay lets go and remember to think what would a ninja do""

Luffy grabbed her and use his stretched arm to swing them to shore like tarzan in the storybooks she was read when she was little.

Once they got on the island Luffy quieted down and got serious or as serious as he could be. He didn't goof off and avoided making any noises which impressed Miria immensely. Though she knew he could be quiet while hunting he didn't always do it, preferring to hunt big game that couldn't hide easily.

They travelled through the forest in a crouched were making their way for one of the steep hills to get their bearings. They could have used the top of the cliff but it was too exposed for their liking.

Miria got jolted out of her quiet musings when she heard a guard patrol coming closer. Luffy whispered "" Do we let them pass or do we ambush"" she thanked her forethought to impress the coolness of a stealthy ninja on Luffy. And then said "" Let them pass we can't raise a ruckus yet"" he nodded and then retreated slightly more into the canopy.

Miria followed and watched the two guard pass. They had sunglasses and rags covering their mouth to protect their identity. They also carried a rifle on their backs and a combat knife strapped on their waist. Their clothes were red shirts and black pants so they must not care much about getting spotted. Or rather they wanted to be visible to prevent friendly fire in case of escaped slaves she guessed. One was a skinny tan man with red hair with a distinctive scar on his left arm. The other was a dark skinned man with a plumb build and a large tattoo on his forehead.

Miria expected the fat one to be the stupid one because seriously who bothers wearing shades and rags to hide your face. When you got a huge tattoo on your face that makes you easy to spot from a thousand man line up.

As soon as they were out of sight they moved on. After some time they reached the hill and got a proper look around while being shielded by the nearby trees. They didn't see much though, the other steep hills and trees covered much of the rest of the forest, but it was a start.

"" Where to next'' quipped Miria as any place was as good as any other.

"" We landed in the south and the Valsa docks were somewhere in the north. Our best bet is to go there and then trace their supply lines to wherever they are keeping the slaves"" argued Luffy

Miria couldn't argue with that much logic and accepted his idea and made for the north side of the island. Miria was religiously sticking to the tall grass and bushes that was abundant on this island to hide from any guards that might walk by. Luffy was thankfully still in serious mode with a few friendly reminders about the captive slaves now and then to keep him in it.

"" Goddamn annoying flies, seriously I "" Miria couldn't finish that sentence as Luffy suddenly slapped his hand on her mouth. She was ready to protest with her fist when she saw what he was pointing at.

A tiger was prowling the woods nearby. It hadn't spotted them yet but it would soon enough. Whether they made a sound or not if they stayed there. They quickly hightailed it out of there while keeping the wind at their backs, it wouldn't do to have the tiger catch their scent. They could probably defeat that tiger but not without shooting her gun or breaking a tree when Luffy punched it. The guards would be crawling all over them in no time flat if that happened.

Miria didn't really care if the guards found them or not they could just defeat them as they went along, but they might move the slaves or worse kill them. So she was putting in extra effort to not get spotted until she found them. But just leaving a trail of dead bodies as she made her way over to wherever they were keeping them was becoming more tempting by the minute between the flies and native tigers.

sometime later

"" What is that, it looks tasty "" said Luffy pointing at a weird bird that was walking nearby in a clearing. "" Seriously, it looks like a cross between a turkey, a ostrich and a peacock"" said Miria with disgust. She wouldn't touch that bird with anything other than a dagger.

"" I wonder if it tastes like chicken."' Said Luffy ignoring her like she hadn't said anything

Miria in turn just sighed and ignored his latest statement too and walked on. The island really had a lot of wildlife from goats to komodo dragons and even dangerous ones like bears and tigers. It was odd that so many different animals were on the same island but maybe the pirates had gathered them as a natural defense and sold the pelts as well. She hadn't seen any hunting parties so she guessed they were either here already or put as a defense.

After some time they made their way to a river with a shallow river bed where they could cross but the pirates were on the other side. It wasn't a big outpost just a few ramshackle buildings and some crates lying around. She looked for a way around the river that wasn't very fast moving but they could be deceptive in that. Ankle deep water was harmless no matter how fast it moved but knee height and it could become dangerous especially if you lost your footing. But if it was waist high you were screwed if it had any kind of speed. The water was clear enough so there wasn't much chance of her taking one step and suddenly find the bottom a good meter lower than she expected. But that also made her painfully obvious if she tried to swim across.

"" Luffy we need to cross this river any bright ideas other than looking for another crossing""

"" Can we even enter it, I thought we couldn't swim after eating devil fruits'' remarked Luffy

"" Good point,, hadn't thought of that"" conceded Miria. She really needed to get used to being a hammer from now on. The fact that she had no noticeable ability made it a bit more tricky than for most people.

"" Why don't we just stand on that hill there and swing across to those threes on the other side. "" said Luffy

Miria looked to her right and saw a steep hill alongside the river bank. Most likely the river had cut its way through the hill over the centuries. "" Sounds like a good plan let's do it "" said Miria who was becoming more and more trusting of Luffy's commands. Sure they sound simple and straightforward but you didn't have to make things more difficult than they had to be.

"" Hold on tight "' said Luffy as he grabbed her around her waist and swung them across. They landed none too gracefully in the bushes with an omphf. "" Ouch that hurt, you need to work on your landing"""said Miria rubbing her but and right shoulder. Luffy ignored her though and was watching the pirates for signs they heard them. "" Looks like the coast is clear "' whispered Luffy

"" Yeah but we still can't sneak past those pirates on the open road so we'll have to climb that steep hill on their left hand side.

"" Hmm but that hill only has some short grass on it, we can't hide there. "" argued Luffy uncomfortable with this plan

"" Your right but if we're lucky we won't need to"' said Miria confidently

"" How so '' asked Luffy puzzled

"" Back in the marine academy there was a class about catching hiding pirates. They said that most people don't look up or down much when they aren't looking for something. So long as we don't make a sound to attract their attention they won't even look our way. "'

"" And if they do "' asked Luffy already willing to go along but wanted to have a backup plan ready

"" Then we jump down and kill them and hide their bodies in the bushes"" said Miria with no hesitation. She might have spared those pirates before who only occasionally sold slaves but these were the real deal and ideally she would rescue every slave first and then come back to massacre this scum.

"" Okay but how ' asked Luffy having already long accepted that you had to kill the bad guys "' My punches don't kill and your gun makes too much noise""

Miria took out a knife from her boot and handed it to Luffy. "" Use it at the first sign of them spotting us. There Is no point in being quiet after they start shooting at us.""

"' Hmm knives aren't really my thing"" said Luffy holding the knife a bit awkwardly like he wasn't to sure what to do with it. "" Just stick them with the pointy end okay" said Miria a bit patronizingly

"' Hey I'm not stupid"' Luffy whispered indignantly

"" Sorry sorry. I mean stab them in the heart or cut their throat with it. Anything else and they'll live long enough to scream. The heart kills instantly, the throat doesn't but their vocals are cut so they just gurgle. If they cover up those, cut the inside of their thighs there is another major artery there too but make sure to cover their mouths to muffle their screams and hold them for a few minutes for them to bleed out. "' lectured Miria while pointing to the spots on her own body

"' Wow that's detailed how'd ya learn all that"" asked Luffy more impressed than appalled by her knowledge of slicing a man's vitals.

Miria shrugged "" In the academy too, during swordsmanship class. They don't teach you to become a decent swordsman in a few months but they do at least tell you what to aim for. "' not mentioning that she had already known, that only few people died right away since she was eleven. The cruel fact was etched into her brain when she watched her friends die of those very same wounds. Pirates may lack formal training but they got plenty of on the job experience.

They climbed the cliff as far away from the pirates as possible. They could have gone around but that would take forever and to be honest Miria didn't want to. Although she could accept the logic of sneaking past she still wanted to just go in guns blazing. And another guard point positioned there was almost certain so it didn't really matter. They had to sneak past somewhere so might as well be here.

The plan worked perfectly the pirates never looked up and they got to over hear some gossip although nothing interesting. After they crested the top they could see an outpost these men most likely had been a checkpoint for. This outpost had a fenced perimeter made out of debris from old shipwrecks. It wasn't made to hold out any attacks but just give them some time to organize a counter attack. It only had six guards so they wouldn't be able to hold it anyway against superior numbers.

Miria and Luffy watched the outpost for an hour for any sign of the slaves and any supplies coming in. But they didn't see a single sign of them, the only thing in a cage that they saw was a sleeping tiger. So maybe they did hunt but only the dangerous ones ? thought Miria

"' It's going to take forever to scout every outpost until we find them. I wish we could just interrogate some of these guys"" whined Luffy getting bored from sitting still so long

"" Hmm maybe we can, I got a plan"" said Miria

"" What are we going to do"" asked Luffy turning around to face Miria

"' We are going to do nothing"' said Miria smugly

"" How is that a plan"" said Luffy dismissively giving her a weird look as If to make sure she wasn't crazy. It was kinda insulting for Luffy of all people to doubt her sanity.

"" Just shut up and I'll show you. You just sit here and keep a look out, I'll be right back"' said Miria already moving towards the outpost.

She stuck to the trees and then the bushes and finally crawled through the tall grass towards the fenced perimeter. During their surveillance she had noticed a gap in the wall due to the shoddy construction that she could squeeze through. She got to the gap without attracting the attention of the sniper guard on top of one of the building mainly because he was sitting in a chair facing the other way.

That side had a better view of the surrounding forest than just a boring grass hill. She guessed he trusted the check point guys to warn of any danger coming that way. Too bad they were all lazy and just assumed someone else would pick up the slack. She examined the gap and figured it was a bit to narrow and she might get caught on one of the sharp pieces of wood so she dug it out a little bit more with a nearby rock. It took some doing but soon she was on her belly using her elbows to move forward. Once she got through she looked around and saw the guards still in the same areas they had been in before she made her approach. She got out of the hole and hid behind one of the crates carelessly left behind.

They were really not expecting an enemy attack or a inspection for general safety and efficiency as there was plenty of stuff lying around to use as cover. Didn't their mothers never tell them to clean up after themselves. Well maybe after she was done they would remember it with a passion. She carefully sneaked around the guard in between her and the sleeping tiger. By entering a building she knew was empty as she had watched it closely for the last hour or so and used its other exit to bypass him. Once she got to the cage she had the who and where but now she was stuck on the how of her plan.

The lock wasn't too complicated it seemed to be a standard lock by the looks of it. She wondered, she had heard a report of a thief using a pair of scissors to shimmy the lock open by wiggling one of its blades in the lock. She grabbed her knife from her boot and started wiggling. It took a lot longer than she had hoped but eventually the lock clicked open. When she dared to push the knife in further, all the way in. She had refrained at first afraid that she might break the inner locking mechanism.

She slowly pulled the cage door slightly open careful not to wake the tiger. She then slowly moved back and picked up a rock as she went. Once she was at the outer range of her throwing distance she threw the rock right at the tiger. She missed and hit the bars instead , it was expected but disappointing nonetheless. But the tiger did wake up and noticed the door was ajar and started prodding it with its head. Miria moved back the way she came as quickly as she could before the tiger got over its surprise.

She darted from cover to cover but didn't make it to the gap in time before the screaming started. Pandemonium erupted all over the outpost, guards were screaming and firing away at the slightest movement. The tiger was attacking the guards using the same cover she had used to ambush the men and tear them to pieces. The guards had a hard time keeping track of it with all this junk blocking their view and even if they spotted it they didn't have a clear line of fire either. They mostly hit crates and concrete. Miria crawled into her hole and decided to stay burrowed there for a while. She wasn't sure yet who would win, the pirates or the tiger. The pirates had numbers and firepower but the tiger had the terrain advantage.

She wasn't keen on being shot by trigger happy guards or eaten by a agitated tiger. Stray bullets had killed a lot of better men and women than her after all. After a while it quieted down and by the sounds off it the pirates had won by a narrow victory only two men of the six were left.

Miria snuck back to Luffy's position now less worried about stray bullets. The fact that the perimeter was now poorly defended and that there was no tiger to ambush her helped too. "So what was all that about"' asked Luffy who had seen Miria release the tiger and watched it hunt down the men one by one while they all ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.

"" Now it looks like everyone got mauled by a tiger who got out because someone forgot to lock it or maybe it somehow wandered in. In any case it doesn't look like a human did it. Now we can grab the remaining guards and interrogate them. "" said Miria proudly

"''Shouldn't they have radioed for help by now" asked Luffy

"" Nah I heard them talking about running over to the next outpost to the east for help. So they don't have a den den mushi.""

"" Okay so we grab the guards and interrogate them but wont their friends miss em when they do a body count"" asked Luffy as he stood up, curious If they were blowing their cover

"" That's the beauty of setting that tiger loose. Everyone will think that they ran off in to the jungle and died there. So it will be a week before they realize that we are here when they can't find a body,"" explained Miria reveling in her success. This had been her second scheme after the whirlpool express and was a lot more satisfied with its results. No crazy one in a million survival odds or what ifs to worry about. She just threw some oil on the fire and then sat back and watched it burn comfortably from a distance.

"" Okay lets go then"" said Luffy using soru to close the distance to the outpost. Miria followed close behind. They didn't bother with stealth as the guards where so on edge that they fired when the wind made the wood creak. Miria was half tempted to play out a favorite scene of one off the horror books she had read. A few ominous sounds here a sudden disappearance there and followed by a blood curdling scream. She knew it was a cliché but if executed properly it was classic.

Miria used soru to get right behind one guard who was oddly the fat black guy with the ridiculous tattoo on his forehead. While luffy used his gomu gumu hammer to pound the other guy into the ground. Miria used the pommel of her dagger to hit the fat one on the back of his head knocking him out while he was staring star struck at his buddy's face being planted into the ground.

"" Luffy what the hell did you do that for"" yelled Miria with a mouth full off shark teeth

"" Whadda ya mean"" asked Luffy dumbfounded. He had knocked the guy out without him even realizing he was there like a real ninja.

"" You created a crater in the fucking ground. in case you didn't know ,… tigers bite and maul people to death they don't bury them alive. "" said Miria lowering her tone of voice in the second part of her diatribe, it wasn't his fault he was an idiot after all.

"" Sorry"' said Luffy but not really meaning it, how else was he supposed to knock him out, his other attacks would have sent him flying.

"' Whatever lets tie these guys up and take them to the jungle"" said Miria trying to regain her composure. After Luffy pulled the guy out of the crater Miria used a tree branch to smooth the area over a bit and then threw some leaves on it. The ground still looked disturbed but it would pass a cursory glance now at least.

Miria ripped their shirts into long strips and made them into a improvised rope to bind the guards. She could have used something from the outpost but wasn't bothered to go looking for it and there was no telling if it would be missed or when people would come by. They tossed the bodies over their shoulders and walked back into the trees.


	6. Chapter 6 a family barbeque

Chapter six: a family rated barbeque?

In a isolated location on the island

"" So how do you want to play this"" asked Miria again not sure how to do this and wanting Luffy to take the lead.

"" How am I supposed to know you're the expert on this cloak and dagger stuff"" said Luffy cheekily

They had used the guards pants to tie them to a strong tree branch upside down. Luffy was actually kind of impressed that they were still sleeping hanging upside down. It had to be uncomfortable with all the blood rushing to your head, he knew he hadn't been able to. "" I just went through basic training. torture and interrogation is a class for special units only"' defended Miria

"" You sure, cause most marines I know are experts in torture"" said Luffy thinking back to his gramps and that captain Nezumi he had heard so much about.

"" Apparently there is a difference between causing as much pain as possible for the fun of it and causing pain with purpose without causing lasting damage, so your victim will live long enough to tell you something useful"" explained Miria she took a breath and added "" The way that creepy promotion guy was talking about it, it sounded like a art and a sport. Done right and you barely had to touch them, done wrong and you can flay the skin of their backs and they still wouldn't tell you anything useful.""

"" Hmm that gives me an idea"" said Luffy knowing how he was going to start this off.

"' What's that "' asked Miria curious what he had come up with. His plans were usually simple but solid.

"" I'm hungry lets cook dinner"' said Luffy seriously starting to gather up the dry pieces of wood in the area. Miria was bowled over, seriously that was his plan! to get something to eat.

Although she figured it wasn't a bad place to start, the waiting in anticipation would soften them up and the food scent wafting over wouldn't hurt either. It was more psychological torture than anything else and it would take time for it to take effect and she wasn't sure she wanted to waste that much time but she didn't have any better ideas so she just helped out.

It didn't take long before they had plenty of firewood and Miria had caught a goat grazing nearby. Luffy then smacked the prisoners awake and then oddly enough started building the campfire right underneath them.

"" Ugh where am I "" said one of them a fair skinned man with short blond hair and green eyes with a slender build. Luffy ignored him and continued building the fire, he had already finished placing the stones to prevent it from spreading and now he was preparing the kindling.

"" What are you doing " asked the other guy with the tattoo on his head. "" Oh nothing much just making a fire to cook that goat over there."" quipped Luffy with a big goofy smile on his face

"" I can see that you idiot but why are you doing it below our heads"" he yelled with shark teeth out in full force. Miria was staying quiet and was watching Luffy's performance while silently skinning the goat.

"" So you guys can get a whiff of it of course"' said Luffy as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Soon he got the kindling to catch on fire and was slowly building the fire up by adding more small sticks. The prisoners were starting to sweat and not just because of nerves, the fire was a good two meter below them so it wasn't unbearable yet. But the thought of what would happen when the fire got going and they started cooking wasn't pleasant. Then the goats flesh wasn't going to be the only one nice and tender if a bit burnt. They were frantically wiggling around trying to get their legs free but the thought of what would happen when they got free and fell down was becoming more unpleasant by the minute.

hey profusely cursed their lack of exercise now, their hands were still free. so in theory they could reach up and grab that branch and untie themselves. But neither of them could manage to lift their bodies up all the way to manage it. They were just coming up to their waist level at best, they we're so fricking close and so fucking far away at the same time that they wouldn't have reached it if they had months to try, frustrating them to no end.

Soon the fire was going and Miria speared the goat on a long tree branch on put it above the fire, using a tripod of branches and some makeshift rope of the prisoners t-shirts. "" So guys while we wait for this to cook mind telling us where those slaves are"" asked Luffy calmly while he was poking the fire.

"" You're crazy, do you even know who you're up against here"" said the skinny one with a fearful look

"" Nope but why don't you tell me "" said Luffy truthfully he had already forgotten what Miria had said about Alexander.

"' Our boss Alexander is a fucking psychopath, who will kill you slowly and painfully"" bragged the fat one regaining some confidence now that he thought he could scare this kid into letting them go.

"" Hmm that's interesting tell me why he's a psychopath"" asked Luffy trying to get more out of them of their own free will.

"" Well when some slaves mouthed off too much to him, he set them free"" said the fat one waiting to get prompted before continuing. Luffy obliged him and said "" That doesn't sound too bad "" in a cheerful voice. Miria sighed wondering if that stupid sounding response was genuine or faked.

The fat one continued smugly "" It would have been great if it wasn't in the middle of a minefield while he ordered his men to fire at them for sport."" Luffy and Miria were appalled but didn't show it other than Luffy's eyes getting a fierce gleam.

the skinny one just had to tack on to that with his own reminiscing "' I remember the time he wanted to play a game with a few of his friends. He made It a bit more interesting by using the babies we captured as nobody was going to pay for a infant. We would toss them up into the air and catch them with our swords. Whoever did the most damage to the baby won the game.'' said the skinny one with a smirk while hoping they would get so scared of their boss's cruelty they would run and hide.

"" How does he normally treat the slaves'' asked Miria in a cold voice but inwardly worried how many traumatizing horrors they had to go through.

the prisoners were frustrated that their scare attempt yielded no visible results and tried again. "" The usual I guess, we lock em in wooden cages and feed them every now and then. We have to protect them if we get attacked but we can fuck em so long as we're gentle"" said the fat one with a leer on his face

Luffy calmly walked over to the side and grabbed the tree branch and pulled it down. The men screamed as they got a up close and personal look at how charred the goat already was. "" Please please let us back up, we beg off you'' they screamed in fear.

Luffy held the branch in place for half a minute while picking his nose and then let go. The branch swung back up and jostled the men a bit. Then Luffy added to their fear by saying "" I'm hungry, cant we speed this goat up by making the fire bigger"" in a innocent childlike sounding voice.

""You'll burn the outside completely if you do that. We'd have to scrape it all off. it's a waste of perfectly good meat"" fake complained Miria playing along as the stern sister type.

"" I don't care, there is too much for us to eat and carry anyway"" lied Luffy she knew full well that he could eat ten goats and just call it an appetizer.

The men looked on fearfully during this exchange, already their hair was slightly singed."" Fine, but your catching our next meal you got it"" conceded Miria smiling internally at the fear etched on these slave traders faces. She did feel slightly bad about torturing them but appeased herself with knowing the horrors they had committed. They had already freely confessed to rape or at least accessory to it and excessively cruel murders.

Miria could easily accept killing in self defense and even when it wasn't, if you had a good enough reason for it. But rape and murder for sport went way over the line but she wasn't completely above crossing that line too. She already had to repress some traumatic memories of her village getting raided and the sound of women's clothes getting torn off and getting raped right there on the spot. She had only been spared because she was more child than woman back then. But she knew that some of those women had never been the same afterwards. Just thinking back on what her friends went through urged her to torture these bastards some more.

So far they hadn't touched a hair on the prisoners head, well they hadn't the fire was another story. They might have to get some hair products to repair that dry hair but that was negligible. The interrogation mostly played on their fears and hadn't done any lasting damage so she was pretty confident that she was following the concept laid out by the torture promotion guy.

Although she had to wonder how Luffy was such an expert on torture. He either had plenty of experience or someone taught him. You didn't think of slowly barbecuing humans at the drop of a hat unless you read, heard or seen something similar.

Miria however didn't know that something similar had actually happened to Luffy once. When his gramps had him tied upside down on a tree trunk while he was cooking his food nearby, the directly above the fire part was for Luffy just spicing on the cake. Shoving those delicious fragrant scents right into your nose was the real torture.

The real torture to him was not getting any off that succulent goat. To have to see it up close and crispy while his stomach was growling was sheer torture for him. But so far he had to commend their resilience in not asking for a bite to eat. But he figured they would start begging as soon as they realized, they weren't getting any when he served it.

Luffy cheerfully accepted the duty of catching the next meal and started piling on more wood and soon turned the relatively small fire into a huge pillar of fire whose tongues were licking at the prisoners who were using all their strength to pull themselves up. But they could only hold themselves up for half a minute or so before they fell back down in exhaustion. It would only be a matter of time before they were too tired to move and the fire got enough time to catch and burn their faces off. They started screaming for mercy.

"" Well if you want me to stop all you have to do is answer my question"" said Luffy while using a knife to check the rareness of the goat meat.

"" We'll tell you anything you want to know just put out that fire"" They screamed although they were already straining to say that much due to their fatigue.

"" Then answer it "" said Luffy without missing a beat and then sliced of a sliver of the goat meat to taste it.

"" Answer what '' one of them asked "' My question "" said Luffy and then popped the meat into his mouth. "' You haven't asked us anything yet "" they screamed in fear and frustration and not to mention building anger. Luffy didn't answer though he was busy chewing his food. The prisoners were desperate and were trying to wet themselves. Normally they wouldn't urinate in public but right now it might save their lives.

Luffy noticed the growing wet spots on their underwear and panicked. He quickly rescued his grilled goat before it became inedible. "" Ewe what do you think you're doing to my dinner'' he yelled with shark teeth and vein pulsing above his right eye.

'' W-we were just trying to put out that fire"" stammered the fat one not keen anymore on drawing the ire of the only person who could save them. They had been screaming for a good while now and their captors hadn't bothered to stop them. So that meant they were isolated enough that other guards wouldn't hear them.

"" By pissing on my food !"" he yelled the prisoners were looking uncomfortable now unsure as to how to answer that but Luffy continued "'If you do that then how am I supposed to eat the goat"" said Luffy demanding an explanation from them. Miria had to stifle a giggle at the absurdity of it, he was nearly burning them alive and was asking them to apologize for ruining his meal. If it wasn't so funny it would be cruel beyond measure.

"" We're sorry"' they chorused not meaning a word of it but not wanting to anger the seemingly crazy kid. "" Now answer my first question or I'll start torturing you guys till you do."' said Luffy firmly and then turned around to face Miria "' This goat tastes good but needs some herbs or a bit off spice"'

"" It's a bit too late to go look for herbs now Luffy save it for next time"" said Mira not wanting to scour the island on a wild goose chase.

The prisoners were dumbstruck, if this wasn't torture! then what the bloody hell was he going to do to them, if this was just foreplay.

"' What kind of torture"" asked the skinny man scared of the answer. He had seen and inflicted plenty of torture on his years on this island but was dreading the answer now that the shoe was on the other foot.

"" Oh we haven't decided yet, Miria here suggested flaying you alive but said that it didn't always work"" answered Luffy while still pouting that Miria wouldn't help him improve the taste of his goat.

"" Yeah, but it might work if we just focus on their more sensitive bits like finger tops and family jewels"" said Miria playing along again, at least she thought she was. She wasn't sure if Luffy was still faking or not anymore, not that she could blame him after the baby skewering game comment.

"" Sounds good and how about having them going skinny dipping in the sea afterwards."" added Luffy cheerfully like he wasn't going to drag them there and literally rub salt in their wounds. "" But we might have trouble getting them out again"' said Luffy sounding a bit worried while tilting his head to the side and using a thinking pose.

By now it had become clear to them that the kid was as crazy as their boss. This kid could open up their guts and pull out their entrails and then choke them with it. And do it all with a smile on his face and probably a comment about how it would make the food taste better.

"" Enough enough we already said we would answer your bloody questions but just tell us what it is"' said the fat one frantically. He could already feel his back burning, he had been biting back the pain but it wouldn't be long before he couldn't hold it any longer.

""'You mean you don't remember " asked Luffy seemingly puzzled by this

"' Yes we don't know. so please just tell us"' they begged in unison

"" Oh okay then, where are the slaves being kept. "" said Luffy slowly making sure to pronounce it clearly like he was talking to an prisoners felt slightly insulted by that especially coming from him off all people . But ignored it in favor of answering the question and maybe escaping this torture.

"" The prison camp is to the south east of here, where the river splits up and then joins up again before flowing into the ocean. In the middle of that is a sort of mini-island where the camp is located in the middle of steep cliffs. The cliffs there form valleys which are the only way to get into the slave camp and they are all watched by a sniper. "" The skinny one said quickly. He was shorter than his dark friend but he too was feeling the burn.

"" How about any other defenses"" asked Miria and then as a afterthought asked "" And what about Valsa docks.

"" Valsa docks is really only a place where old shipwrecks are collecting dust to the north of here, you can't miss it"" said the fat one "" Then why call it a dock asked Miria. "" Because it's a mockery off one, a inside joke really. And we do use it as a docking point for our customers and suppliers, as it provides plenty of hiding spots for our men to ward off any double-crossing."" explained the fat one

"'Hmm I see if I asked you to draw an accurate map of these places and the rest of the island could you do it"" asked Miria

"' Yeah we can do it no problem"' cried the skinny one not sure if he actually could but was willing to say anything to be let down. Luffy threw some sand on the fire but not enough to quench it completely but enough to douse the flames. The ashes would still be hot enough to reignite the fire in no time flat. This subtle threat wasn't missed by the prisoners who had plenty of experience with campfires.

Luffy stretched his arms and held them up while he untied the not in their pants. He then unceremoniously dropped them right where the fire was. They screamed in pain and quickly rolled out of it.

"" Oh if you're going to run, I'm going to use the 'how to kill with a dagger' lesson Miria taught me on you"" said Luffy cheerfully while caressing the knife in his waistband with a finger.

Miria gave them some parchment and some ink. They weren't map makers by far, the drawing was crude at best. The distances were undoubtedly wildly inaccurate and the vague shapes were confusing in what they were supposed to represent. After some questions for clarification Miria got the gist of it though.

"" Hey I heard you also kept a little girl with some special power captive here "asked Luffy phrasing it so that they would know what he was talking about even if they hadn't heard about devil fruits.

"" Ahh yeah we caught a little girl six years ago"" said the fat one slightly worried how they were going to take this news. Though it wasn't anything compared to his earlier comments. He knew people felt more strongly about a personal story than mere statistics. He had used the knowledge often enough in taunts to find out for himself after all. Rather than say you killed fifty six people say you killed a little girl. Or better yet forced her brother to kill her and then guilt tripped him into committing suicide. That always got under peoples skin and made them sloppy in battle because of their anger, making them easy pickings for him.

"" What have you done to her"" asked Miria interpreting his worried looking face for a guilty one.

"" We haven't done anything but our boss has been training her to obey him and only him without question. ""

"" How"' prompted Luffy wondering if there might be some way to counter it

"" He used some special green hand cuffs to restrain her powers and uses her as his personal maid. He has been ingraining the instinct to obey into her for years like a normal slave. But he hasn't tried commanding her yet without the cuffs. He fears she may still have some free will left and kill everyone on this island if he tries training her to kill with her powers too early""

"" So she would rebel if she could"" asked Miria hopeful that she wouldn't have to fight this logia girl.

"" Yeah I guess, she would technically be free as soon as Alexander dies because she only has to take orders from him. Though she has standing orders to kill anyone who tries to kill him. "' said one of the prisoners

This gave some hope to Miria she knew that people didn't feel the compulsion to kill as much when the symbol of authority wasn't around. Marine soldiers would drop firing rates by as much as twenty percent without a direct superior officer present nearby giving the command, or they would shoot to miss or aim at non lethal areas. This meant that she could talk to her without a nearby guard giving her a valid kill order as only Alexander had that authority. She suddenly remembered the other part of the sentence.

"" Wait you said 'with her powers' does that mean…..? "' Miria trailed off horrorstricken

"" Yeah, he has had her kill people the normal way plenty of times to the point that she wants to of her own volition. "" confirmed the skinny one

This worried Miria but maybe she could reverse it or at least channel it somewhat to only kill bad guys

"" I see so we have to kill him without anyone noticing us until the girl finds out for herself that she is free, if we force her with us she might resist out of fear""

"' I agree we have to kill him first or we'll get massacred by that girl, wait what is her name anyway"' asked Luffy somewhat embarrassed that he had taken so long to ask this basic question

"" Her name is Vera"' answered the fat one and then proceed to tell his own name to humanize himself to his captors "" By the way my name is…. ""

"" We don't care so shut up "" Luffy cut him off with a sharp look which caused them to squirm. They knew they were in trouble. They had tried to scare them which had backfired on them immensely and receiving mercy seemed unlikely now.

"" Now what about the other defenses we asked about "asked Miria getting back on track

"" The slaves themselves are kept inside a mine because it's easier to guard. The camp itself is lightly guarded right now though because most of the guys are protecting a shipment to our client"" said the skinny guy still trying to give satisfying answers in the hope that he might be let go.

Miria cursed they had been too late for those slaves. She couldn't risk interrogating Alexander on where they were headed. they would get spotted before they got a word out of him and would then be chased around by Vera. Miria also figured the chance of extracting him for interrogation was slim and then they would still get chased by Vera while they questioned him and there would be no telling what they would do to the slaves in the meantime.

She couldn't think about them anymore they were gone and as good as dead. She could only focus on the here and now and that meant killing Alexander with extreme prejudice. She looked at Luffy and saw he had come to the same conclusion. She sighed and then asked "" So what now, do we leave them here tied up ""

The prisoners got a hopeful look in their eyes. They knew it wasn't ideal to be tied up in a forest full of meat eating predators but it was the best they could hope for.

"" Nah the other guards might find them before we escape and we were going to kill them eventually anyway, might as well do it now "" said Luffy while pulling out his dagger.

""Wait please we answered your questions! you said you would let us go "' argued the fat one while back stepping a few feet preparing himself to run.

"" Actually we didn't, we just agreed to stop torturing you, you just assumed that. Next time you negotiate with your life on the line, make sure you read the fine print."" said Miria smugly while whipping out her own dagger.

"" What ,.. you bloody lying bastards"" the skinny one yelled and started to run away. Miria quickly threw her dagger between his shoulder blades. The dagger punctured his lungs and he choked on his own blood. While Luffy used soru to appear on the fat ones back and used his dagger to slit his throat.

"" Hmm that was easier than expected "' said Miria as much as she wanted to kill these bastards she had expected to feel some remorse. Maybe she just didn't care about these baby killing rapists or maybe it would set in later on. Or perhaps she had softened the blow by already indirectly killing four men by setting loose that tiger. But most likely it was because they were its and she had no problem following Luffy's orders.

"''Yeah I guess, lets bury them and move on'' said Luffy while grabbing a sturdy piece of wood to use as a shovel to dig a shallow grave. Luffy had some pangs of conscious as he had no one to shift the blame to. He had an out to just leave them here to their fate but insisted himself to kill them on the spot. He had resolved from a early age to kill bad guys to prevent their future crimes. He had unconsciously and unknowingly also regarded them as its more than humans but struggled somewhat regardless because they begged for mercy.

""Yeah we need to raid the prison camp first and maybe later we can torch Valsa docks as well."" said Miria agreeing with Luffy and also grabbing a piece of wood.

"' You think we should place the ship just near the river. Worst case scenario we get spotted and the slaves can jump in the river and float down to the ocean and get fished out by the crew "'asked Luffy

"' You forget that crew isn't loyal and we can't count on them to stay put or fish those slaves out of the river. They might just fish them up only to turn them over again to Alexander for a reward."" argued Miria

"" Hmm that's really annoying, we got a ship but can't use it""

"" Yeah I know, maybe we can find some slaves in good enough shape to sail the ship for us."""

"" Maybe, if we're lucky"" agreed Luffy

Author notes

Right now there is a heat wave in my country and I live in the hottest part of the country in a attic room with small windows. The temperature difference between my room and the rest of the house is a few degrees higher even on normal days. So I'm not that eager right now to sit in front of my laptop while sweating bullets.


	7. Chapter 7 Bluffing

Chapter seven : bluffing

Miria and Luffy were overlooking the camp from on top of one off the steep rocky cliffs. The sheer height and angle of the slope was no problem if you happened to have a rubber friend with extendable arms.

"" Hmm there are twenty four guards by my count four times as many as in that outpost"" said Luffy after finally finishing counting all the guards on his fingers.

"" Yeah and not much cover either"" commented Miria having held back until now, too amused by his counting attempts to say anything.

The camp was about a dozen buildings arrayed around one dirt road leading through the town that then went over a small bridge to the prisons. The prisons themselves were built into an abandoned mine.

"" We could have just sneaked over to the prison using the cliffs if it wasn't for that bloody sniper."' complained Miria and then continued"' He is only watching those cliffs and the valley there so if we try that. We'd have to fight the entire camp all at once"'

"" Hmm that wouldn't be a problem if it wasn't for Vera""

"" Hey do not underestimate this Alexander guy either"" warned Miria trying to nip any carelessness in the bud.

"" Sure sure will do"" said Luffy not really meaning it. Miria gave him a glare for a few seconds but let it go for now.

They watched the guard patrols a bit longer and memorized their patrols. "' I think we can sneak past if we go around the left side of the town and climb underneath the bridge."" proposed Luffy "" Yeah but then we're in open field with a sniper at our backs once we pass the bridge."" critiqued Miria sniping down the plan.

"" Yeah we'd have to cut across the road to take him out'" conceded Luffy slightly abashed by Miria

"" It's not a bad start but we need to find Alexander first and then take out the sniper before making our way over to the prisons. ""'said Miria trying to straighten out any ruffled feathers

"" Yeah but there is no way to know where Alexander is at any given time"" remarked Luffy "'True and sneaking around looking for him isn't exactly ideal."" agreed Miria

"" There are simply too many guys around for them not to see us at some point so we need to take them out"" concluded Luffy

"" You mean kill them and hide the bodies right ?"" hoped Miria

"" Yeah we have no choice, their line of vision covers too much ground."" confirmed Luffy

""Let's go then"" said Miria relieved they were at least going to try to be stealthy for as long as possible.

Luffy lowered them to the ground and they snuck across the open field when the guard's back on the right was turned. They only had a few seconds before he would walk back towards them to make the distance "" Shit he's turning around"" whispered Miria urgently.

Luffy grabbed her and dived behind the welcome sign just outside the camp, Miria had to stifle a giggle at that. They were actually welcomed by the guy who they were going to kill. She got a better look at it and saw it doubled as a odd job poster board. She saw requests for killing a type of animal, luxury goods and repair jobs and so forth. It seemed to also function as a primitive barter system and she was half tempted to leave something behind as a taunt.

They waited for the guard to turn back around and then dived into the bushes next to the closest building. It was a simple single story building with a flat roof where a guard was patrolling. Although they had already noticed he looked more towards the center of town than to the perimeter. She guessed watching the other guards walk back and forth was more interesting than the grey cliffs.

She mimed to Luffy to take him out by drawing her thumb slowly across her neck clearly for him to see and then pointed at him with her thumb. He crouched in a ready position and took out his knife and waited, he only had one shot to do it right after all.

He waited for him to stand still and then stretched out his arms and covered his mouth and slit his throat and then plunged the dagger into his chest and used it as a handhold. He dragged the body over to the side of the roof and gently laid him down in the bushes.

Miria held her thumb up to signal a good job when she didn't hear the sound of alarms going off meaning no one had noticed yet.

They sneaked along the building a bit carefree now that they knew that the one guarding this side of town was already taking a nap. They did suddenly got cold chills when they passed a bathroom and heard some guy talking to his dick apparently .

"" Do you remember the old days, do you ? "" a slight pause and a grunt of pain ""We were friends , we did everything together …. "' he trailed off followed by "" Now the pain that you cause me"' "" as I betrayed you, you have betrayed me ehh" a short pause "" Answer me bastard"' by the sound of it he slides down on the wall in pain and then says "" As usual "' more groans of pain "' You have nothing to say, and still you rule my life "" he lamented finding a bit of humor in it by the sound of his strained laughs. **( plagiarized from the borgias it was too awesome to pass up for this scene**.)

Miria realized the guy most be suffering from some kind of disease he most likely got from raping or whores. She smiled a venereal disease was a fitting punishment to rapists but not enough and a double edged sword for the victims as well. But she would remedy that soon enough.

They got to the other end of the building and now had a clear view of the small river. Miria looked around and then saw a sight for sore eyes, the den den mushi control room was right around the corner. If she took that out then she wouldn't have to worry about them calling for back up or other surveillance snails. She and Luffy had checked carefully if they could see any but so far had come up blank but had assumed that there were some in the buildings and definitely in the prisons.

She checked to see if there were any guards looking their way and when she was sure they weren't looking her way. She used soru to cross the distance as fast as possible. She still couldn't do a instant movement but a fast dash was good enough for now. She slowly opened the door and snuck into the room.

The operator was watching the screens of the prison which were displaying some guards having some fun with a few prisoners. He was drinking some sake while flipping through the channels as if it bored him. Though she noticed he kept coming back to the one with the guards torturing every few seconds. It seemed he really wanted to watch it ,but the sadistic bastard had too much work ethic to get sloppy.

Miria made sure to stay low as the screens would reflect her back to him like a mirror. Once she got close enough she lunged and tried to stab her dagger into his neck. He was startled but had enough presence of mind to fall out of his chair to dodge the blow. He had seen her at the last moment as she had feared and he could raise the alarm any second now. "" Who are you "" he demanded recovering quickly but still somewhat dazed by the sudden turn of events.

Miria ignored him and threw her dagger at him and then charged at him. He quickly side stepped it and raised his fists in preparation to fight her off but then groaned in pain as a knife got lodged into his liver courtesy of Luffy who had stretched his arms behind her and used her as a blinder to cover up his attack. The man was about to scream out when Luffy let go of his dagger and started choking him.

The man fought back trying to get a word out to get his buddies in here to rescue him but only made unintelligible mumbling. Miria reached him and kicked him hard in the solar plexus. Which was a bundle of nerves right above the diaphragm that moves air in and out of the lungs. So not only was he stunned but his lungs couldn't move for a few seconds. He was essentially getting choked two ways at the same time while being powerless to stop it. The man soon lost consciousness and would die soon after from blood loss. But for safety Miria stabbed him again in the heart and also as a mercy because gut wounds could take a long time to kill.

Miria then studied the control room screens trying to figure out what was happening right now, the general layout of the prison and most importantly where Alexander was.

"" Hey I think I see Vera "' said Luffy while pointing at a screen separate from all the others. It was a bare iron bar cell with only a bed in it with a girl about fifteen years old lying on top off it. She seemed to be simply staring endlessly at the ceiling not moving an inch. Miria would have been worried she was dead if she didn't see her stomach rising and falling slightly. her feet and arms were covered in sea stone bracelets.

It seemed that Vera was the only one Alexander went to such extravagance for. Because most of the other prisoners were crammed into large wooden cages without enough room to sleep on the floor.

The prisons had been located in an old mine which made it easy to guard the entrance and made iron cells mostly redundant. If they rebelled they could just close the door to the mine and wait them out. They would starve to death before they managed to break that iron door or dig their way out without tools.

"" Hey any idea what Alexander actually looks like "' asked Luffy. He was looking at the guards in the screens but couldn't see someone bossing others around. Usually commanders had a significantly different uniform to make sure his subordinates instantly recognized him from afar. So they could easily obey his orders even during chaotic conditions. The flip side of this made it easy for enemies to pick them out as well but Luffy wasn't having any luck.

"' Ehm no"' admitted Miria not believing her own colossal fuckup of not knowing the appearance of her primary target. It was standard procedure for all marines : you see a pirate ship, then you look at the jolly roger and then if you don't recognize them you look it up in the bounty book. The looking up of the bounties wasn't just to assess the threat level but also to recognize the most important individuals so they didn't get away.

No wonder she didn't get a promotion if she still fumbled elementary stuff like that, maybe it wasn't just blatant corruption oh well.

"' We need to ask around then"" said Luffy not noticing their mistake

"" Our best bet is that sniper across the road, he is high up enough to not get spotted while we apply some pressure though we can't risk him screaming""

"' You think he knows where Alexander is"'

"" He should, he can see the entire camp from there so he should see him walking around. and if not we can find him ourselves once we get a description"" said Miria while rechecking the guard patrol routes for any weaknesses.

After Miria was finished Luffy unplugged the den den mushis and knocked them unconscious. "" Hey Luffy put on this guys uniform"' said Miria while undressing the operator

"" Why, what for "' said luffy eying the bloody uniform with distaste.

"" Simple idiot, so they don't shoot you on sight if one of them gets the irresistible urge to turn around"' lectured Miria

"' Why don't you do it "' complained Luffy still not eager to feel half dried blood on his skin.

"' I may not be overly feminine but I'm not boyish enough to pull that off thank you very much"" said Miria slightly offended.

"' Ok sheesh don't get your knickers in a twist"' said Luffy flippantly

"Just do it and shut up"' said Miria slightly annoyed now

"' Sir yes sir"" joked Luffy

"" And don't you forget it "" joked Miria somewhat mollified by the joke

"' Wait what about you""

"""Hmm this guard here keeps looking this way erratically so there is no way across the road without a uniform."" said Miria pointing at a guard in one of the buildings looking out of the window.

"' So why not go back and get the one we hid in the bushes""

"" We could but that guy was too short for me to fit inside of his uniform. though you might if you can also shorten your limbs"' asked Miria seriously

"" Hmm never tried that before"" said luffy holding up his left arm examining it.

"' Well In that case better not field test it just yet shall we"' cautioned Miria before Luffy did something that could backfire.

Luffy agreed with her and she added "' Don't worry I'm right here watching everybody so if you're in trouble I'll be right over. ""

"" I knocked the den den mushi unconscious though"'

"" Yeah that was another rash mistake we made"" conceded Miria thinking that they could have just asked the operator if she hadn't killed him right away. "" But no matter I still got my own eyes don't I"" reassured Miria. They really had been lucky so far but it seemed that more things were likely to go wrong. Miria feared they were only scratching the surface of their rookie mistakes and flaws in their planning.

Luffy put on the uniform and checked himself if he looked good by looking at his reflection in the dead screens. "" Don't worry you look fine "" said Miria walking over and padding him on the back.

""Well I'm off then""

"' Remember interrogate him there on the spot as we can't move him. He also cant scream or the guards will be crawling up your ass. And finally come back safely as soon as your done. "" warned Miria unnecessarily

"" Yes dear"' said Luffy offhandedly while walking out the door

Miria thought to herself briefly how that must have sounded and then shrugged it off and focused back on the task at hand.

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Luffy walked cross the street like nothing was wrong towards the sniper. But one of the guards on the roof called out to him. "Hey where's your rifle, you idiot"" he asked

Luffy had to think of something fast and just said "" I'm on break right now and didn't feel like lugging it around"". Inwardly he was extremely relieved his uniform shirt was a natural red color that made blood stains easy to miss. He briefly wondered if that was why slave traders wore red shirts and the marines white.

The man laughed '' Then how are you supposed to protect yourself then""

Luffy shrugged faking nonchalance ""'We're in the middle of nowhere if someone even knows of this place that isn't getting paid off I'll eat my boots'' joked Luffy

The man laughed again "" I like you, most of the other guys here are so serious. They need to lighten up a bit."

"" Really the guys I saw around here were pretty relaxed, going as far as taking a nap during their shifts"" said Luffy truthfully

The man gave him a hard look and seemed satisfied and left to go on his patrols again. Luffy thought about it and then realized he had been quizzed on his knowledge of the organization. If he had been pretending to be eager and hardworking he would have looked off. He guessed they filtered out infiltrators by their eagerness to fit in and move up the ranks. If he had panicked about his forgotten weapon and agreed with him too much he might have gotten some more questions.

Luffy took a detour now that the guard had taken note of him. he didn't want him to come up to interrupt him in the middle of interrogating the sniper. Wondering why he was staying up there so long or something . He walked into the alley next to the three story building with the sniper in it. He then walked around and jumped to the window on the top floor when he noticed that no one was looking at him at that angle. He hung from the window and listened for someone inside the building when he heard no one he entered the room. It was a ordinary looking break room which gave Luffy an idea. He walked over to the fridge and raided it from anything readily edible.

After eating his fill he grabbed two cups of coffee and walked the last stair. He walked onto the sniper platform and was immediately halted. "' Hey what are you doing here this is a restricted area" he said

"' Relax mate I just came to bring ya some coffee and enjoy the view."'

"' I don't drink"" said the man fearing poison from this unfamiliar man who wasn't following protocol. Protocol was pretty lax in most areas and with most people but he was the exception. He intended to get rich young and die old and he wouldn't reach that goal by being careless.

Luffy shrugged and said ""Suit yourself "" downing the cup of joe himself in on gulp

"'Aah that shit tastes awful no wonder you don't drink"" joked Luffy

The man still seemed ill at ease and was keeping his distance. This wasn't good, he couldn't take him out without a struggle from this distance so he needed something to close it without arousing suspicion. He looked around and saw a table with a deck of cards and chips on it and got an idea "' I see you play poker, fancy a game"'

"' Sure"' said the man still unsure about him but was fine with a table in between them as it would limit his possible attacker's options. "' Texas holdem fine with you""

"" Its fine, I don't actually know another form of poker"" confessed Luffy. he had seen the old men in the village play the game so knew the basics. But knew he also wouldn't win a hand other than on dumb luck. But he didn't need dumb luck anyway he already had a surefire way to win this game.

Luffy put the money Miria had confiscated from the pirates on their way over here and redistributed among themselves on the table "' Wanna make it interesting "' asked Luffy normally a noob at poker would be asking to throw away his money. If he started using real money right away but Luffy didn't care .

"" Sure why not "" said the man and put his own share on the table. He then dealt the cards and posted his blind. Luffy looked at his cards and only had low unsuited connectors he knew he could only win with this if he had a shitload of luck or bluffed like crazy. He smiled and raised immediately. The man gave him a look and then called and dealt the flop. The hand continued but Luffy stopped paying attention calling and raising haphazardly.

He only raised for one reason and that was to get the man's attention on his hand rather than him. He only had his right arm on the table his other arm was stretching underneath the table. He was slowly extending his arm to wrap around his opponents chair like a snake. He waited until his arm was fully coiled and ready to strike and constrict his opponent's airways in a second. His opponent finally noticed the weird coiled mess of flesh on the floor. He jumped up and yelled "" Snake"" Luffy cursed a bit and snapped his left arm into place and then closed the distance with his right arm to cover up his mouth.

"" You know you were right to trust your gut, not to trust me'' said Luffy while the man struggled to breath in his snakelike grip.

"" Now you only have to answer two questions and I'll leave you here unconscious . blink twice if you understand"" continued Luffy the man blinked twice "" Good now then, where is Alexander and what does he look like. I'll let you speak for this but if you scream expect your ribcage to turn into dust. You won't die but your life will be utter torture for the rest of your life."" threatened Luffy.

They then got interrupted by a guard yelling from below "" Hey Carlos you alright I heard you yell snake"" Luffy gave a menacing glare to Carlos and said"" Get rid of him or prepare to hold your internal organs in place by hand.""

"' I'm fine just got a bit of a scare"" said Carlos with the fear and nerves clearly audible in his voice but that was fine. The snake was a readymade excuse for it so hopefully it wouldn't get noticed. "" Okay Carlos I'll see you later, then you can tell me how big the snake was"" joked the man laughing as he walked away. Carlos called after him "Will do Richard""

This seemed a bit odd to Luffy and wondered if they had somehow exchanged a secret sign . Was it 'I'm fine' or was 'snake' itself a code word or maybe it was 'scare' and his reply of 'tell me how big of a snake' and 'will do' seemed like a confirmation. Luffy groaned internally this kind of deep thinking was better suited to Miria. He hoped he hadn't just screwed up big time and decided to just get the interrogation out of the way while he still could.

'' Enough socializing now answer my question"' the man looked him in the eye and was reluctant to answer. This contrast to his earlier willingness only cemented his fears of a codeword so he increased the pressure on his rib cage to get him to talk. "" Alexander looks like a tanned man with long black hair all around like a girls but don't tell him that or he'll kill you"" joked the man but Luffy wasn't amused as it seemed like a stall attempt. ""Continue"' he merely said

the man got the point and went on"' He typically wears a red shirt with a jolly roger on it with a seagull design to mock the marines involvement with him. "" this was enough to identify him Luffy hoped "' Where is he "'

"" Well that's…. I don't know"" Luffy immediately increased the pressure some more making it difficult for the man to breath. "' He went with his men to guard the latest shipment"" Luffy didn't ease up the pressure. He was too distracted by this news to worry about this man right now. He couldn't believe it. They had planned to kill him and not only hadn't they not known what he looked like but also failed to realize he wasn't even here. This was beyond rookie mistakes and was too happy go lucky even for him to accept.

They could have asked the pirates at sea, the guards they captured at the outpost and the operator. all of them could have possibly given them an appearance and if he might still be on the island. But somehow they somehow expected him to be on the island in his headquarters like a good little villain. And of course easily recognizable by his richer clothes and air of arrogance or something.

Instead he wore a normal t shirt with a crude joke on it and was leading his men from the front rather than from the back. Luffy sighed "" Where did he go"' he asked

"" No one knows, he says it's to prevent us from killing him in his sleep" answered Carlos. Luffy thought about it and decided it made good business sense for cutthroat pirates. He certainly wouldn't trust any of these guys to stand anywhere near his back. He would always be turning around and checking for a dagger in there constantly.

This meant that Alexander was unreachable for the moment and there was no way to disarm Vera. it would have been fine if they hadn't touched anyone in this camp before finding out. They could just retreat and wait for him to come back. But now they already had two dead and they would be on high alert now.

This meant plan B was going into effect sooner than planned. Luffy gave the man an apologetic look and snapped his neck. He could have let him live if he could kill Alexander today but now that he couldn't he might as well whittle down his strength while he could.

Luffy placed the body underneath the table, it wouldn't hide it by any stretch of the imagination but it would make it slightly more difficult to spot. It somewhat soothed his nerves more than anything else really. He also took his money back Miria might nag/joke about wasting money later he thought wryly. He made his way over to Miria they had to discuss what happened.

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During Luffy's poker session

Miria was watching the guards for any signs that they noticed them or not. She got nervous when she saw Luffy talking to that guard but nothing happened . She calmed down somewhat but kept a sharp eye on that guy nonetheless. He seemed to walk a bit too fast paced to one of the buildings and she was worried that he might be warning someone. But she couldn't do anything about it from here without screwing things up worse.

She had no choice but to sit tight and watch things play out. She was slowly being converted to Luffy's belief of just bashing the bad guys head in. She would definitely second it next time if the next enemy wasn't so well armed to the teeth. A bit of mindless brawling would do wonders for her stress levels right now.

She watched another guard come closer to the tower and seemed to have another conversation that she couldn't hear. The not knowing was really getting to her now because again he was walking away a little too quickly for her liking.

She was sure of it now their cover had to be blown or maybe she was just going paranoid it was hard to say. But you weren't crazy if everybody really was out to get you.

She saw Luffy walking back over as fast as he could while still trying to make it look casual. She applauded his effort but he was failing miserably in her opinion. He soon entered the door and without greeting said "" We got a problem "'

"" Tell me about it"" said Miria who was watching the guards talk nervously to each other."" Alexander isn't here "' he said which threw Miria for a loop for a few seconds and then started to look frantically out the window. She then finally spotted what she was looking for through one of the windows. A guard surrounded by some other guards was talking to a baby den den mushi. She knew those couldn't reach of the island and so couldn't be to Alexander so had to be to other outposts. Meaning that soon this place would be crawling with more guards like she feared. She calmed down somewhat, now that she knew they were screwed but at least knew how much they were fucked for the time being.

"'Miria you ok "" asked Luffy concernedly "" Just peachy don't worry about me "' assured Miria while thinking of how to adjust plan B. "' So plan B then "'

"' Yeah plan B it is " agreed Miria

"' Okay let's move out then before those guys get their thumbs out of their ass.

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Miria and Luffy ran over to the mine entrance not bothering with stealth anymore now that they were made and it was only a matter of time before the encirclement was complete. "' Luffy smash this door open please"' said Miria gesturing at the wooden door reinforced with iron. "' No problem Miria"' said Luffy winding up his gomu gomu bazooka relieved he could finally use his regular attacks again. He smashed through the door and Miria ran in after him. The room they entered was a guard break room of sorts and the guards hadn't been informed yet of their presence by the other guards. Therefore they were surprised that one of their own just busted down the door. "' What the hell do you think you're doing. You'll be shoveling prisoner shit for weeks for this you bastard"' the guy in charge yelled

Miria ignored him and just walked up to him like nothing was wrong, though she filed away that little tidbit for later. " Answer me damn it, hey you're not a guard"" Miria sighed "' You're not the smartest guy around here I hope."" She then slashed his throat and pandemonium broke loose. The other ten guards were struggling to grab their weapons but Luffy was making it difficult by smashing the tables and cabinets where they were stored.

Miria was using the confusion to just calmly walk up to people and stab them in the back or wherever she could reach. People's eyes were trained to notice fast moving objects not slow ones after all. She could use soru to run around so fast they could barely see her. But she would most likely hit her head on one of the flying pieces of debris. Or she could just walk around slowly and carefully dodge the debris while sneaking up on them unsuspected. They were so busy watching Luffy toss tables around and searching for their weapons. That they completely forgot about the girl who had slashed their commanders throat.

After just five minutes Miria and Luffy had taken all ten guards out "" Well that answers that question, he really was the smartest guy around here, how disappointing"'

Even Luffy was slightly bothered by that calm and cold statement but shrugged it off. "' Yeah he at least noticed you enough to note what you were wearing or what you weren't wearing"' quipped Luffy. Who had noticed one guard actually ask Miria for help during the fight, thinking she was an ally. He had seen his disbelieving look when she jammed a dagger in his liver and asked her why before he died.

Miria was slightly caught off guard by the not wearing clothes comment though she was sure he hadn't meant it like that. She shrugged it off and said "' Let's go before more guys show up"'

"' Lead the way"' said Luffy good naturedly

Miria did, after grabbing all the cell keys from the fallen men. But was half wondering if Luffy was checking out her ass as she lead the way. A normal boy would but she wasn't sure about Luffy. At times she had to wonder if he might be gay for all his disinterest in most females other than Makino and her and even that was at a platonic level. Or perhaps he was just reserved fearing he might make a mistake and ruin the friendship. She idly wondered if it was even up to her to find out. She certainly liked him well enough but wasn't sure if she wanted that.

She opened up a another partition door and then entered the tunnels proper. "" Wow it looks like a bloody maze in here"' said Luffy. "' They are old mining tunnels which form a three dimensional maze together. I can't be bothered to search every dead end so we'll just open up any and all cell doors we come across and hand the slaves keys to open up more"' said Miria jangling the keys she had looted.

""Aren't there still guards patrolling it, wont they attack the prisoners"' asked Luffy

"' They will, but we can't flush them out on our own fast enough so we'll just have to hope the slaves can overpower them in sheer numbers or we'll hear the commotion in time to help. "' said Miria slightly uncomfortable with her plan but seeing no other way around it. Luffy agreed and they entered into the gloomy tunnel that smelled of stale shit.

They soon saw the first slave cell in a side tunnel, they were malnourished and pale from a lack of sunlight. They didn't notice the fact that Miria wasn't wearing a standard guard uniform immediately either. She was slowly starting to wonder if lack of sunlight lowered your IQ or something. Those guys frying in the sun noticed Luffy even in his uniform and these guys didn't seem to notice her unless she started walking around naked.

She hoped these guys were just too out of it or something. It was somewhat insulting to be this ignored by not just people she was trying to kill but now also those she was risking her life to save. It was like somehow she was beneath their notice or not considered a threat which when phrased like that pissed her off even more. "' Hey wake up people we're here to get you out of here "" she said

"' What huh who are you"' one of the slaves said dazedly

"' Grrr I just told you, I'm here to get you out "" she threw in the keys and walked on "' Don't mind her she's just in a bad mood because she can't kill the guy in charge of here because he isn't here. "" said Luffy trying to reassure the slaves of their good intentions "' We don't have much time before reinforcements arrived so use those keys to free the others so we can all get out of here"" Luffy explained.

Miria had walked on ahead throwing in more keys in the cells leaving the idiots to figure it out for themselves and focusing more on taking out the guards and finding Vera. If they didn't care about her than she wasn't about to waste more time on them. Finding Vera was more important anyway and in the meantime killing slavers was doing wonders for her temper.

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Luffy soon split off from Miria as soon as enough slaves were out of their cages to take over explaining the escape as Miria was still in a bad mood. He travelled through a the tunnel which was remarkably empty of other cages. He was starting to think he was in one of those dead ends, Miria had warned him about. when he saw a light up ahead after a bend in the tunnel. He raced ahead and saw the iron barred cell he had seen on the den den mushi screen.

The fifteen year old girl was still looking up at the ceiling either not noticing him or just ignoring him thinking he was another guard. He reached for the lock and said "" Don't worry I'm not a guard I'm here to get you out of here"'

She didn't respond she just looked at him like he was something foreign and weird. Luffy opened the cell with his keys and entered the cell and held out his hand for her to take. But again she didn't respond just looking at him like she didn't understand. She looked quite adorable with that puzzled look on her face framed by her really long golden hair and her blue eyes searching for something but not finding it.

She didn't seem openly hostile like Miria had feared so that was a good thing. She wasn't much of a danger to him so long as she had the cuffs on but he wanted to get them off to show that she could trust him. Those cuffs were rumored to have the same energy as the sea and probably made you feel sick too. So she was permanently sick for six years by his guess, a form of slow torture if he ever heard one. He knew that not every torture had to be intensely painful to be effective. Just the dripping of a water drop on your forehead could drive you insane in just a few hours, if you couldn't do anything about it.

"' Don't worry I'm a friend"' Luffy tried again trying to make some conversation. He wasn't willing to just grab her and go. Kidnapping anyone however righteous wasn't a good start to a friendship after all. He seriously doubted she would thank him anytime soon if he ripped her from everything she knows even if it was hell, without her permission first.

"' Friend"' she repeated like tasting the word on her lips with a voice hoarse from disuse. She didn't seem to understand the concept or maybe she did but it was half forgotten due to disuse. Luffy remembered she had to have been nine years old when she was kidnapped. So she had gotten some basic education but was neglected ever since.

"' Yeah a friend is someone who helps you when you need it and someone who you can have fun with"" said Luffy trying to jog her memory and explain what he was doing here at the same time.

'' You friend "' she asked with a blank face and pointing at him

"' Yes I'm here to take you away from this place "said Luffy hoping they were right in her wanting to rebel and didn't just trigger a standing order to kill anyone trying to help her.

She smiled somewhat but said ruefully"' Alexander said I can't leave the island without his permission"' and there it was, this was exactly what they had been afraid for. She wanted to rebel but was conditioned so that she couldn't leave anymore of her own volition. Luffy tried to work around it for now "' Don't worry about it we're only taking a stroll along the island for now so we won't break his rules right. "" She seemed to struggle with the notion for a minute until she suddenly smiled and said "' I guess so, let's go friend"' Luffy smiled at her accepting his loophole even if it was a bit flimsy "" By the way my name is Monkey d Luffy, but just call me Luffy'' he said "" My name is Vera nice to meet you"' she responded

That had been the second normal sentence so far so maybe she could speak but was either shy or just hadn't done so in a long while. Luffy guessed she was used to just following orders and not talking back at all or being locked in this room all day. Luffy tried to make some small talk with her trying to avoid anything too painful. Between her six year long incarceration on this island and probably bittersweet childhood memories that didn't leave much to work with. So he focused on things he knew best namely food.

She didn't seem that interested in the topic but appreciated his attempt nonetheless . She told him about her old village specialty foods and what she would like to eat again with a slightly morose look. Luffy noticed and tried to cheer her up by ruffling her hair and saying "" Don't worry Vera I promise you, you can eat ice cream again"' promised Luffy. Vera pulled away from him but still seemed to like it judging from the ghost of a smile tugging at her lips.

Luffy saw it as progress if he could make her smile more this might get easier. He started all kinds of circus like displays with his body trying to make her laugh. Just when he was standing on one hand and threading his left leg through his bent right leg he was holding with his other hand. While he was jumping up and down to an imaginary beat, they heard a scream. Vera who had not been smiling so far but had been following his act with great interest suddenly looked towards the scream and said "" That's Hernandez, are you taking the other guys for a walk too"' she asked innocently

Luffy briefly wondered how she could recognize the guard's scream but brushed it off, off course she recognized it. All she heard were the guards voices for the past six years. He shouldn't even be surprised if she knows their family life, pieced together from idle gossip.

"" Yeah we're taking them on a boat ride back to their family" said Luffy watching her closely for any signs she wanted to come too. She got a bit of a far off look but otherwise said nothing. Luffy took that as a yes but decided not to push the matter just yet. "' Want to go meet my friend "" he asked changing the subject. "' Sure"" she said and started walking down the corridor with her sea stone i cuff chains trailing behind her.

"' Hey do you know where the key is to your cuffs "" asked Luffy finally bring up the question he had been dying to ask.

"' Yes"" she merely replied but gave no further explanation

"" So where is it "" asked Luffy slightly annoyed but more than willing to play along with her little game if it made her happy. "" Alexander has it on him at all times. he doesn't trust anyone with it or judge anyplace safe enough"' she said after a long pause, as If deciding or not whether to keep playing with him or not. Luffy cursed if Alexander had the only key then there was no way to free Vera and prove he really was a friend. Right now she seemed to merely indulge him on account of her sheer boredom, due to being cooped up in here for so long.

She wouldn't be free or believe him until he produced the key along with Alexander's head. if Alexander got to her before he got to him though she would instantly turn into a final boss he couldn't hope to defeat so he had to get her as far away from here as possible. But maybe it was a blessing in disguise as well, even if he got the key. If Alexander somehow broadcasted his order over the island while she was free it would be instant game over too. So maybe it was better this way, now they could keep Vera from being freed so they could defeat her if need be without seeming like the bad guys by refusing to free her. Luffy groaned inwardly practicality and general good guy behavior didn't seem to mix too well.

author notes plus spoiler alert

I have authors block right now about Alexander I kind of hyped him a bit too much and now I'm not sure on how to deliver. I don't really want to give him a strong devil fruit as that would lessen his need and fear for Vera. so that leaves me with swords or something which isn't bad for luffy's first real opponent as alvida and Morgan were both normal.

but I kind of made Alexander out to be a big shot so he needs to be stronger than don Krieg at least. the problem with that is it leaves little room for Luffy to explore in east blue. so either I accelerate the time line or I invoke a time skip. I could also just postpone the battle until later but that leaves so many issues open with Vera. which could be fun in its own way but leaves them trapped on the island and I don't want to drag it out too much.

there is also my third problem I want to create some new events but figuring those out takes a whole lot longer than thinking up variations in the cannon story line.

ps do you guys want a long fight sequence with Alexander or prefer a short and brutal one.


	8. Chapter 8 Going out with a bang

Chapter eight: Going out with a bang

Miria was cutting through another guard who had the bloody nerve to be more preoccupied with recapturing malnourished slaves who were about to keel over, rather than her. That was it! she fumed, she was going to get a bounty high enough so these idiots would wet themselves at the mere sight of her. To be ignored this much was beyond insulting to her although extremely useful.

Freeing the slaves and dispatching the guards had been like taking candy from a baby and so left a bad taste in her mouth. She had regained her composure enough to assess the slaves physical condition and assign roles of who did what. It gave the appearance of order and made it more efficient to evacuate everybody. It turned what could easily have become a mad stampede for the exit into a mere mockery of a military formation.

Though Miria didn't care if they danced or shuffled their way out of here. So long as they did it in a somewhat orderly fashion and didn't crush each other underneath their feet. She had to raise her voice a few times to restore order which bugged her too. Those pirates she had been able to command with a mere soft spoken word. But here she was reduced to shouting the loudest and brandishing her weapon to underline her point. She didn't get where she went wrong, she had actually killed her enemies this time in the same calm cold fashion and the slaves had born witness to it just like the pirates. So why weren't they as eager to follow her orders ?

In the end she put the blame on the fact that they perceived her as an ally and didn't think she would stab them. Although they had a good point, she really wouldn't but the fact that it made her worthless as a leader bugged her. She knew that ruling by fear wasn't a definition of any skilled leader but rather the bottom trash who couldn't do it any other way.

She didn't have that natural charisma Luffy had that made you want to follow him or just obey him. But damn it! She should have enough presence to command this sorry rabble. She was wondering how she could improve her leadership skills when she came across another iron reinforced door. That seemed a bit out of place compared to the other wooden cages. She had honestly been able to just cut through those with a bit of effort with her dagger. The only reason she had brought the keys was because it was faster and it had the key to Vera's iron cell which she couldn't cut no matter what.

So taken their general stingy decorating taste so far this had to be another important room. She hoped it was Vera's cell behind these doors so she could leave this dump. The slimy and moldy tunnels smelling of stale shit wasn't doing anything to improve her mood. She was sadly disappointed but got a nice consolation prize after she pried the door open with her daggers. She had broken a dagger in the attempt but was well compensated when she saw what was behind the door.

Alexander had to pay for the slaves and store his earnings somewhere which was quite a large sum. she had so far seen about a hundred maybe two hundred slaves so at five hundred thousand belli per slave that made an easy fifty million or hundred million belli right there. But he had just sold a shipment meaning he had or would receive payment soon. So she was looking at the princely sum of two hundred million right there in front of her.

Miria smiled with belli signs in her eyes. She wasn't an overly greedy person she thought but she wouldn't pass up a chance to loot that much money from a deserving victim any time soon. It didn't hurt that if she didn't take it with her . It would be used as funds to restart the slave operation by some remnants she would miss in her purge. So she would torch anything she couldn't carry with her to the ship. She was in luck though it was neatly placed inside a treasure chest. Maybe Alexander liked the view off his money in a treasure chest to appeal to some childhood dreams. A chest was better than nothing but still not ideal in trying to lug it around on the run. She looked around some more and found some silk finery Alexander probably wore when he had to meet with the marines. She took some vindictive pleasure in tearing it apart to make another make shift rope to tie the chest to her back.

She was a bit lopsided in her weight balance now, so she had to lean forward quite a bit too keep from falling over. It made for a somewhat comical sight she thought her shuffling around with a bent back and a huge treasure chest on top. Though she herself wasn't laughing it was hard work carrying this loot and she had every intention on palming it off to Luffy when she had the chance. Or maybe a couple of trustworthy slaves when she thought about his attention span. He generally seemed to think everything non edible was worthless, an outdated economic view to say the least but not without some truth to it.

She huffed and puffed carrying the chest and decided to just head for the exit and clear the surrounding guards out and wait for Luffy to find Vera. She wondered if leaving the most crucial part of plan B to Luffy was a good idea but then shrugged if she couldn't trust her partner now then when would she.

Worst case she could hold the chest ransom by holding a torch above it, to prevent the guards from moving in until Luffy or the other slaves found and freed Vera. The guards would be hesitant to say the least to see their salary go up in flames. She herself would be sad to see the money go but if it meant getting this weight of her back she was all game. It didn't do her any good if she was dead after all.

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Luffy and Miria met back up in the break room where Luffy had beat her to it by a mile. He was currently raiding the fridge again while looking at the guard setting up the perimeter around the mine entrance.

"' Miria your finally here"" he said Miria merely grunted in greeting "'And you brought friends"' he continued unfazed by her gruff greeting referring to the slaves following behind her. Who were somewhat helping her carry the chest by holding it up a bit from the side. She hadn't found a trustworthy looking slave yet, though it was hard to do when they all looked dirty beaten and desperate. It was exactly the type of image she had been taught to stay away from as a little girl. She was having trouble letting old preconceptions go with two hundred million beli on the line.

"' Never mind that and help me with this chest. I see you found Vera then "" she said letting the chest slip of her back and noticing the squatting blond haired kid in the corner poking the bodies she had killed. "' Yeah I did she has agreed to go 'sightseeing' with us "" said Luffy emphasizing the word sightseeing. Miria got his drift and knew that they were going to have to work through the loopholes in the standing orders.

She hoped she could just ask for a list of them and then just work out the holes like a proper lawyer. She had heard quite a bit about that profession as it was mocked aplenty by the veteran marines who knew most trials were show trials.

They were supposed to bend the law in the favor of their client. But most often they just showed up drunk as it was futile to even try, the verdict was guilty regardless and all that mattered was the harshness of the sentencing.

Though she was no lawyer she had been given a basic education of the laws so that she knew when people were breaking them. So she had some familiarity with rules and people trying to get around them. But she was a bit too afraid of a kill anyone who asks about your standing orders order. If the only guy who could order her around was Alexander then there was no need to tell anyone else now would it. Sure some of the other guards might have to know but it was easier to replace accidentally killed guards than recover Vera after all.

She really wanted some face to face time with Alexander not just to kill him but also to talk with him a bit and get a general sense of his intelligence and preferences so she could figure this girl out. She put it to the back of her mind though. She could figure that out later, If the girl was willing to come with them for now under the excuse of a sightseeing trip than that was more than enough for her

"' So how's it looking "' she asked Luffy who had been observing the enemy formation

"' Well if they were merely taking precautions before we entered the mine they are at defcon 1 right now"'

""Defcon "" Miria questioned

"" Never mind its something my gramps used to say, anyway they have created a semi circle perimeter across the bridge "'

"" Hmm so we have to cross no man's land and a lovely chokepoint in the form of a bridge""

"" Yep that bottle point will pack those slaves so tightly together a blind man could hit them. "'

"' So what are your orders captain"' said Miria with a fearless grin on her face while standing beside Luffy.

Luffy was momentarily shocked, Miria had never referred to him as her captain. A slow shit eating grin spread across his face, someone had finally acknowledged him as their captain. He had just made his first step on the way to becoming pirate king.

"" Only one thing for it, we charge right through and smash their formation to bits. And then lead the slaves across"" proposed Luffy

that sounded crazy and seemed to lack every kind of finesse imaginable. But there really wasn't any other choice she thought, Luffy was right. They were cornered inside this mine with only one way out and that was only going to get more heavily defended in time. Charging with the slaves would only increase their casualties as there wasn't enough room to dodge successfully . The slaves would be useful as meat shields but would then slow them down to a crawl when they made their escape. Not to mention the unsavory moral consequences of intentionally letting them get massacred to save their own hides.

"" Sure thing captain but might I make a few suggestions "''Miria cautioned having thought of a few things that would increase their odds.

'' Sure go for it first mate"' said Luffy giving the second highest commanding post to Miria

Miria took the promotion it with a smile on her face. She was now confident that she had made a smart decision. He still took her advice into account despite being able to order her around. She knew she came up with decent plans but knew that Luffy was better at making snap decisions. If it came down to it, it was better for him to be in charge when they got ambushed or things went sideways in general. She would be forced to sit back and think everything over calmly but Luffy would just jump in headfirst and somehow manage to land on his feet. She wasn't sure if he was an idiot savant or a genius masquerading as an idiot but she didn't care, either option worked just fine for her.

"' There is still plenty of liquor in this room so if we shred the dead guards clothing we can make plenty of moletov cocktails to hurl at their formation."" She suggested, confident that no one could hold their post when it was on fire.

"' We'll still have to cross a hundred feet of open terrain before we get in range. How do you know they won't just target the bottles before we throw them"' asked Luffy

It was a good point Miria had to concede that. If she was on the other end of the sniper rifle she would think Christmas came early. "" I know but we can use the tables as cover but most importantly you can just slingshot them over there with your gomu gomu powers"' said Miria thinking back to the impressive speed those arms travelled at, once they started to pick up speed after being stretched to their limit. It would be an impressive hundred mile per hour fastball right down the middle at the very least.

Luffy laughed "' That sounds like fun "' enthusiastically agreeing with her

It didn't take them long to prepare their arsenal of crude explosives with the other slaves pitching in. Vera wasn't helping but seemed excited at throwing the bottles and seeing the pretty fireworks after they had explained what they were going to do.

"' Okay Luffy it's your show now "' said Miria handing him a bottle from the stack near the entrance. the slaves all pressed up against the wall to make room for Luffy to extend his arm backwards. After a few tense seconds it came flying back and hurled the bottle at the enemy formation.

It sailed through the sky and Miria could see some guard pointing up at it before it landed and caused a fireball in their midst. It set fire to the make shift barriers and guards alike and caused chaos among their ranks. In terms of pure damage in respect to casualties it was minor but in terms of morale it was absolutely devastating.

"' Nice hit Luffy keep em coming'' encouraged Miria though to be honest she didn't care if he was accurate or not so long as he kept up a steady stream. This was a shock and awe tactic, actual results weren't in how many people you could kill but how many you could scare shitless enough to flee. So long as those guards thought that everywhere they looked things were going up in flames, it was fine. It wouldn't be long now before they broke formation to take cover and once they did that she could run in and finish them off during the confusion.

Luffy started hurling bottles like a mad man screaming gomu gomu gattling bottle gun. It was a weird sight, seeing dozens of bottles flying through the air and grown man screaming and running away like little children. They hit near simultaneously and turned the entire camp into a raging inferno. Miria smiled that was sure to put an end to any military discipline.

It didn't take long for the guards to run every which way to escape the flames, some even came towards them. To those poor confused souls Miria was merciful and sniped them in the head with the weapons looted from the dead break room guards. She smiled gleefully at the fiery carnage, plenty of guards had escaped the flames by taking shelter. But some had been set on fire or pushed into the fire by the frenzied press to get out. They were already reduced to a every man for himself attitude she thought. "' Okay Luffy time for the cavalry charge "' said Miria

Luffy pouted "' But I'm not done throwing all the bottles yet"'

"' Let Vera do it she hasn't had the chance to throw as many bottles as you "' scolded Miria lightly pointing at Vera who had taken a bag of bottles and moved toward the guards, once the panic started. She looked like a little girl having fun throwing water balloons thought Miria. It was somewhat unsettling to see her joyfully burn her possible former allies, though they also doubled as enemies.

Miria sighed inwardly again, that girls relationship with the guards was complicated at best. Did she hate them for what they did to her or has she grown to care for them over the years but doesn't care enough to pass up the chance to massacre someone. She fervently hoped it was the former the latter would be problematic. But manageable so long as she could be enticed to only kill people she and Luffy allowed. She groaned that girl was giving her a head ache regardless of whether she did something or not. Her every action could be interpreted as bad and good at the same bloody time, it was driving her nuts. She was almost getting nostalgic of the good old days when everything was black and white. Marines were good , pirates were bad and homicidal little girls got referred to your superior officer.

Luffy agreed and packed up the remaining bottles and together they stormed out of the mine onto the open field. Although there wasn't much resistance left to shoot at them, most only absently noticed and were too busy dodging Vera's bottles which were better aimed than Luffy's, thanks to the shorter distance and proper throwing technique. She was giving the phrase throws like a girl a whole new meaning.

Luffy dropped off the bottles and charged on ahead after getting thanked by Vera who seemed to be having the time of her life. As he ran he wound up a gomu gomu double pistol to collapse two houses in the middle of the perimeter. There weren't that many guards there, so casualties would be light. But Luffy saw that the structure was already weak from firebombs and so it would make an easy point to breach through.

Miria was ahead of him and saw what he was about to do when she glanced back. He wasn't kidding about smashing right through she thought. Soon the twin pistols overtook her and blew a wide opening right into the middle and sent plenty of flying debris around as cover. Miria darted in between the flames and broken pieces of wood stabbing and kicking people into the fire wherever she could.

Luffy followed and targeted the bigger groups and their surrounding buildings causing havoc and destruction wherever he went. Luffy was acting as a lightning rod for all the bullets giving Miria carte blanche to take out the individual stragglers. The guards were trying to reorganize under apparently that guy named maybe he really had been a commanding officer and exchanged a code word with Carlos rather than idle chit chat. Luffy resolved to find out but was having trouble finding out where his voice came from with all the other shouting.

Meanwhile Miria was less concerned with Richard and more interested if the den den mushi's had regained consciousness or not. If they had the guards could call Alexander and warn him of their raid. If she let them, he would probably come back sooner perhaps even with his slave shipment still unsold. And she could put a stop to him faster but lose the opportunity to ambush him at the docks. Not to mention that she rather liked the free time to train some more and put the slaves on a ship out of here before things got messy. She was half tempted to force Vera on it too but her captain seemed intent on making friends with her. She wasn't about to mess that up unless she absolutely had to.

Miria stopped moving when her way was blocked by two clusters of guards who were anxiously looking around, it seemed like they would shoot at the slightest provocation. Miria decided to provide that provocation by throwing a rock just behind one of them giving him the appearance that someone was sneaking up on him. She relocated and then yelled 'there he is'. From her new spot where she was carefully lining up a guard in between them. The paranoia set in and the guard who was jumping at shadows fired randomly.

She had half expected him not to fall for that and shoot at her instead hence the human meat shield. The only guards here were men so it would be strange to get a warning from a girl right? Wait did they not realize, seriously ! She didn't sound like a man did she? She had tried to lower her voice but didn't think it sounded authentic. She hoped that these guys just hadn't seen a real girl in so long that they just refused to believe their eyes or ears. No wait there was Vera and the other female slaves she remembered. This was beyond insulting now and was really damaging her self esteem.

Not only did the only guy she was familiar with not glance at her once. These guys actually couldn't tell she was a woman, that was a low blow regardless of how she looked at it. While she was busy wondering about her femininity the guards were going hysteric shooting at each other. they were thinking there was an enemy somewhere but were only hitting each other, just like she planned. Only she failed to see the beauty of a well executed plan right now. She tried to get her mind of the blind men and back on track by thinking on what Alexander might do.

She half jokingly wondered if he might just cut his losses, it was unrealistic with two hundred million beli and a obedient logia fruit servant on this island against two reckless raiders, but it was still possible. But her biggest nagging fear was that he would call in his corrupt marine friends and suddenly she would have to fight against misguided naïve soldiers believing in absolute justice.

They would cleanse this island of everyone and then capture the slaves and process them. The corrupt marines would influence the processing paperwork so that the slaves ended right back where they started, in a cage forgotten by everyone and waiting to be sold. She could plead her case futilely against the ignorant marines but wouldn't be believed and they wouldn't care enough to actually check up on what happened to the slaves. She would get a bounty even if she somehow escaped and would be hunted down by Alexander at his leisure for the rest of her life.

So when she thought about it like that it was imperative to massacre everyone in the den den mushi control room and maybe even kill the poor animals if it came to that. The only solution left to her after that dreadful call would be to slaughter every marine and guard alike and swear the slaves to secrecy. If they told stories about them she would still get a bounty poster with just a general description of her, that in time would get replaced with a picture and cement her fate.

She refused to be hunted for sport or revenge by psychopaths like Alexander. Once again she wondered if she shouldn't have thought of a plan C, one in which she killed her captain before leaving. A dead Nezumi would make her life so much easier she fantasized.

She arrived at the control room and put her ear on the door to find out if someone was inside. It wouldn't do to burst in and get shot in the chest. The guards were on the breaking point and didn't care about friendly fire anymore. They were like dumb cattle, get one to run off a cliff and the rest would follow. She heard some frantic noises inside and by the sound of it they were trying to revive the den den mushi and plug him back in the control system.

Good she thought she was still on time. Now how was she going to overwhelm a room full of guards without Luffy as back up or distraction. So far they had used a rather classic military tactic called the anvil and hammer or something. Luffy was the anvil who drew the attention of the main army and she was the hammer that snuck around and attacked them in the back. Simple but ridiculously effective when done right especially if the hammer was fast enough to do multiple charges in their backs without sticking around to offer combat.

Their tag team fights so far had been walks in the park and her solitary kills where always done with the surprise element on her side. Now she had to walk into a room full of trigger happy idiots where she doubted surprise would be enough to take them all out. Maybe she would get lucky and these guys would also fail to see her, even if she stabbed their friends one by one. Nah that was too much to hope for not to mention depressing she thought.

Then suddenly it hit her maybe that was her devil fruit power to make her really hard to notice, the thought cheered her right up. If it was just some quirky power the devil fruit gave her than she could accept it. Heck it was actually quite useful so far, marines wouldn't give out a bounty and she could kill pirates by the dozen. She could become a bounty hunter or the first mate of the pirate king and not even get a bounty for it. That thought actually cracked her up a bit but doubted that marine HQ would be that ignorant.

Now how was she going to test it without exposing herself to a pound of lead. Hmm fortune favors the bold, she opened the door and just walked in. Every guard in the room immediately turned towards her and yelled ""Who the hell are you! "". Hmm maybe her devil fruit wasn't being unnoticeable that was depressing and not just because of the half a dozen barrels staring her In the face.

"' I'm a new recruit"' Miria fibbed the guards looked at her and said "' I haven't seen you before and you're a woman"" apparently there really was a no girl policy, so that just put the last nail in her coffin. Bravely soldiering on she said"' Yeah I'm a special recruit to work with Vera, Alexander thought he might get her to cooperate better if she saw me as a sister type."' Making up more lies on the spot was becoming a habit for her maybe she should take classes to make them more believable.

"" Hmm that might be true but I don't see the reason for the boss's caution, that girl already does what he says although she might bitch about it every now and then"' one of them said "' Don't we all, that guy's orders are a bit over the top every now and then"' another replied knowingly.

"' Yeah remember he wanted to see if he could train some slaves to firebomb other ships for his amusement."' one joked. "' I think the official reason was to sell them to more militarily oriented customers"' corrected another. Miria was starting to daydream about how it would be like if she suddenly ripped out that guy's spine and started using it like a air guitar. She didn't have any formal lessons but that shouldn't hurt the performance much right ?

After a few soothing verses and choruses she decided to jump back in the conversation "' So what are you guys doing ? "" she asked. They shrugged and answered "' The same as you, hiding and calling in reinforcements, those two guys are absolute beasts'" Ok she got it she had to work on her looks a bit but that was just too much confirmation. Well at least these guys recognized her as a girl, too bad it wasn't in her favor right now.

"" Anything I can do to help"" she asked "' Well if you can produce smelling salts out of your ass ,then that would be a godsend. These damn snails wont wake up."" one crudely said

"" Maybe they are faking unconsciousness to stay away from your foul breath Bertie'' another guard quipped.

"" I told you to call me Robert you bastard"" Robert yelled back

He was ignored in favor of another quip "" Hey some of these snails are kinda perverted, maybe if you apply some womanly touch he'll wake up."' Great she thought I've enlisted no less than five minutes and already I'm being pimped out, no wonder there weren't any women working here.

"' That won't work '' dismissed one out of hand "" Just let her try it, can't hurt"" said another. Miria shrugged and kneeled down beside the den den mushi and laid it's head on her lap. She shielded it from the other guys view at the same time and oddly enough the den den mushi did actually awake. Great I'm only popular with snails she thought morosely. She surreptitiously pinched his neck with her fingers effectively choking him back to unconsciousness. "' Sorry it isn't working"" she said after a few minutes.

"''Told ya it wouldn't work, she doesn't have the jugs to pull that off"" a guard joked.

Miria was half tempted to blurt out that it did work if it hadn't meant instant death. A shootout with six guys in a small well lit room with little cover was a death sentence if she ever heard one. She tuned the guards out again and focused on her options. She could have poisoned the tea but she didn't have any poison on her. So she had to stick to realistic options that might actually work. Not that she could get away with it even if she did, with so many eyes on her.

So option number two: maybe she could pretend to hear something and get some of the other guards to go check it out, and even the odds somewhat. No they were in here because they were cowards so they would stick the exploring and dying duty on her.

She could leave and come back later with Luffy but that left a really bad taste in her mouth, to go running to Luffy to take care of some bad guys was the definition of a damsel in distress. Hmm so somehow she had to disarm them or set them against each other. She listened to some more bickering between Robert and that other guy and saw a chance. "" Hey Robert why does he call you Bertie""'she prodded hoping to start a fight between them.

Robert smirked"' Because the bloody bastard likes to mess with me because I get paid more by the boss""

This incensed half the room for some reason and started glaring at Robert Miria wondered why. "' No I don't, it; s because you're an arrogant jerk who walks around like he owns the place"' the bloody bastard replied.

Wow, this was easier than she thought now all she had to do was make sure it ended up in a fistfight. "" Is Robert higher ranked or something ."' She prodded again trying to appear innocent while avoiding the looks the other guards were giving her, telling her to quit it. "" This bastard only got promoted because he stabbed my friend in the back."" Ah so that's why half the room is glaring at Robert, they must have been friends with that guy as well.

"" Hah your friend had it coming for letting that slave escape"" said Robert rubbing salt in a festering wound.

"' It was his bloody sister for crying out loud! "" The bloody bastard yelled and swung his fist at Robert. Hmm maybe there was some honor among thieve- slave traders if this guy could stand up for his heroic friend. Though that heroic friend was in the wrong to begin with, at least he made some penance in the end.

Robert got socked in the jaw and stumbled back into some other guards who didn't appreciate a guy in their laps. He got pushed off and he looked torn for a sec who to attack but decided on the bloody bastard after all. He grabbed his chair and threw it at him.

The bloody bastard dove for the ground to dodge it. It was a ridiculously exaggerated movement to just dodge that chair and left him open for another attack but Miria supposed that the chair could look dangerous enough to untrained louts to overreact so much.

The chair sailed by overhead and smashed in the face of a guard who had been directly behind the bloody bastard. He cursed loudly and blamed Robert and naturally returned the favor by throwing his mug of beer. Miria wondered if this was supposed to be a fistfight or a food fight. Luckily the bloody bastard got up and overturned a table and with a kick broke off a leg to make a makeshift club. Again why not just use that pretty sword there on your belt, but maybe he was trying to keep things civil in his own way, she had to fix that problem.

She walked around the group and just when the bloody bastard took a swing at Robert she bumped into another guard forcing him directly into the bloody bastard's swing path. The guy lost a few teeth and was out of it long enough for Miria to slowly walk away and attract no attention. By the time he regained his senses he was positively murderous and attacked the bloody bastard. He tried wailing barrage of punches on him but was still suffering from the knock out so he wasn't very accurate. Some friends of the bloody bastard got in between and tried to explain it was an accident and got punched in the face for their troubles.

The fight was progressing nicely but not everyone was joining in on the fun so Miria grabbed a cup of tea and threw it at another guard sitting in a corner. Some piping hot water ought to get his blood flowing she hoped. He soon was demanding who in the devil tried to burn him alive and different accounts were produced of who did it. None mentioned Miria and the so called culprits were the guys someone else had a problem with. So more past grudges got dug back up, perfect.

Miria carefully placed her foot just behind another guard who was about to step back to avoid the scuffle and neatly placed him on his ass. The guy was confused how he landed there and Miria all too happily asked "'Did that guy punch you"" This firmly put the notion in his mind and soon he believed it himself and would swear to it under oath.

The men were getting nice and bruised up and thoroughly enraged so it was time for the next part. With so many bruises and adrenaline rushing through their system they shouldn't notice a few cuts right away. She put her dagger up her sleeve and walked among the different fights looking for an opportune moment. Luckily everyone was fighting everyone and most hits were sucker punches from behind which gave her an abundance of opportunities.

She timed her attack and lined it up so that she carved out a piece of one guy's stomach just as he hit another guy. He would think the other guy hit him in a dual exchange of blows and just dropped his knife. Then she saw another falling backwards and quickly pushed a upturned chair underneath him with her feet. He broke his back falling on the upturned legs. Hmm quality craftsmanship was so rare nowadays, good thing these chairs were made to last she mused.

Another pair had grabbed each other's shoulders and were locked in a stalemate which just wouldn't do. So she pretended to get pushed into them and then sliced one man's femoral artery with her dagger. This broke up the fight and brought up sudden questions about where that wound came from, and with a pointed finger they soon attacked someone else. Because the harmless damsel in the middle of all this, couldn't possibly have cut one of them so he would die in minutes now could she?

Soon more people noticed the mysterious wounds they didn't remember getting and decided on a first strike policy and brought their own weapons to bear. They hurled insults and accusations which everyone denied which only incensed them even more. If you were going to stab someone in the back at least own up to it, they all seemingly thought. Which really puzzled Miria why on earth would she ever tell them, them trying to figure it all out was half the fun.

Miria lifted a flintlock pistol from a fallen guard and stepped behind another and then turned her back on him. She then used the flintlock pistol to fire blindly into the crowd while holding it so that it looked like he was holding it alongside him. She immediately dropped it so people wouldn't notice he wasn't holding it after the flash of the bang wore off. The crowd looked and saw the pistol laying at his feet proving his guilt beyond a shadow of a doubt in their minds. And those who could have died if not for his shoddy aim cried bloody murder. No one looked twice at the girl who had her back to him and turned around just as shocked as the rest of them, despite his profession of innocence.

Miria faded to the side of the room and watched the pieces fall where they may. It was too dangerous now to walk among them and stab them with her fleeting dagger, now that they were using their pistols. But those same pistols would ensure that most of them would die soon. It didn't take much effort to fire a loaded flintlock pistol so even a dying man could exact some measure of revenge before he croaked. And these fine gentleman had nothing but revenge on their minds right now, she knew as she watched the final act of this little show.

They soon fired randomly missing and hitting at the same time, others dove for cover. After the smoke settled another collective cry of 'you killed my friend ' went out and the swords came out. They dueled each other sometimes two on one though they couldn't resist slicing up someone in another duel if they got the chance. This only increased their paranoia and viciousness seeing enemies everywhere.

In the end only one guard was left clutching his bleeding stomach from a glancing sword blow. Oddly enough it was the guy who got clubbed in the face. Miria wouldn't have put much money on him surviving till the end seeing as he started with a concussion but maybe that served to make others overlook him like they did her.

She walked over to him and pretended to try and stem the bleeding. "" Don't worry, I'll patch you up enough to get you to a doctor. "' The man thanked her and never saw her pull out her dagger again and stab him in the back. But Miria messed up, she missed the vitals. not thinking this guard to be a threat anymore she had become careless. The overly trusting guard suddenly got a epiphany on how he was dying and yelled "' It was you ." He then tried cutting her in the side with his sword. But he lacked the arm strength already to cut deeply due to his blood loss.

Miria however thought it was way too bloody deep. Enraged she twisted her dagger and stabbed him several times. He soon died before he could press his attack but Miria didn't care anymore. She was cut in the abdomen which wasn't necessarily lethal if you had a doctor. But right now she was on a island forgotten by civilization except for the slave traders and corrupt marines. She seriously doubted she was going to get patched up by them. Well maybe if she sold the lie that she was a new recruit again and got hurt in the fight. But that was a big if and she didn't even know if or where a medical post was.

She cursed aloud by the time she got off this bloody island and to a proper doctor this wound would be infected and there would be nothing a doctor could do. She had to hand it to that guard for a job well done. He had dealt her a fatal blow ensuring a painful and drawn out death, just the kind of death you wanted for a traitor. She chuckled wryly to herself, all her schemes and dreams were useless and gone now. The whirlpool express meaningless and no longer a deceit. Her teaming up with Luffy or becoming a bounty hunter in her own right beyond her reach. All because of a careless mistake executing her latest scheme, though that was the way the world worked she couldn't help but curse her bad luck.

She should have just left that guy to bleed out instead of going for the killing blow. This was the last time she was underestimating a cornered and dying man, she tricked into dying. If she hadn't wanted to play with her food so much. She could have just thrown her dagger into his face, and there would have been nothing he could have done about it. She forced herself up ,if she was going to die anyway she might as well die joking around with Luffy. She wasn't a big believer in the depressing funeral routine and would put her two cents in to make her own one a bit more bearable.

Author notes plus spoiler alert.

I hope the battle was satisfactory some may have wanted a head on clash but Luffy and Miria just aren't strong enough to fight that kind of numerical superiority yet . I wanted to use some tactics to level the playing field a bit, to make it somewhat believable that two people defeat a small army of thugs.

Also I originally wrote the Miria getting sliced open scene so Luffy could heal her by triggering his fruit. but the more I think about it the more I want her to die just so it isn't so fricking obvious.

I kinda wanna make full use of the potential of the heal heal fruit and overpower Luffy to ridiculous proportions. However that gets boring real fast so I'm conflicted and for those who remember the first chapter rant this is now the end of the prewritten chapters so the next ones may be a bit slower.


	9. The grass is always greener on the other

Chapter nine : The grass is always greener on the other side

Flashback to the tiger camp checkpoint

Guard POV

"" Hey Steve, how are you "" said a guard looking at another guard coming up to him

"' Good though I still haven't caught anything in those traps I set in the river"" he complained halfheartedly.

"" Shame I really could go for trout right about now ""

""Is that a fresh water fish "asked Steve not sure himself

"" Hmmm don't know maybe we should ask around "" then he looked at Steve and said"' Actually shouldn't you know you're the one who built this trap"'

Steve shrugged"' Hey don't look at me I just built it off what I could remember from the time I was a little kid in a fishing village. Sailors aren't the most talkative bunch when you're just a snot nosed brat. ""

"" True that, they wouldn't give me the time of day like I was lower than the dirt underneath their shoes"' he complained

"' Cheer up Michael it wasn't that bad. Sure we had to get by on scraps but you still had your friends and family right"'

Michael however only got a far of look and annoyed expression on his face "' Don't remind me, the marines arrested my best friend for stealing food. Naturally I helped feed his family but because of that mine went hungry. I thought we were as close as brothers but the bastard turned me in when he was offered a warm bed and a meal just like that "" he grumbled.

"" Huh just for that, that doesn't make any sense"" questioned Steve

"' Hmpf I guess I should add they offered him a deputized police position with a decent wage. In reality he was no more than a snitch who ratted out his best friends, the backstabbing bastard. There is no honor among thieves and you can only count on yourself" Michael explained

"" I guess, everyone here was the runt of the litter in some sense. "" agreed Steve

Michael laughed a bit "' A lousy bunch if I ever saw one but if all goes to plan I won't have to see them for more than a few years anyways. I'll earn enough money to go back home and then bribe the police commissioner to fire that backstabbing traitor and throw his family to the curb."" he chuckled some more at the remembrance of his plan.

"" Isn't that a bit overboard.""said concernedly ""Just kill the bastard and be done with it. Bribing is risky, you know the boss fears being double crossed on a daily basis. Its why he is outsourcing our labor nowadays. ""

"" I won't feel satisfied until I see that bastard suffer. My family starved because I couldn't steal food for them because of that bastard. I will personally watch his family starve before his eyes before I put an end to his miserable life. "" Michael said with hate filled eyes flaring up and a gleeful smirk appearing at the thought

"" I don't blame ya for wanting revenge but be smart about it. You know the marines don't care if your good or bad and are as likely to screw you over as any other street rat. the police can't be any different"" cautioned Steve

"" they aren't, but I'll take the risk. Besides I don't need to worry about any long term consequences like the boss. I'll do the deed and run off before they can screw me over. ""

"" Okay I won't say anymore if your heart is set on it "" said Steve giving in to his friends stubbornness.

"" Thanks I appreciate the advice and all but I need to do this"" said Michael

"" I hear ya mate don't worry about it"'

There was a companionable silence for a bit as they watched the river. Up until it was suddenly broken by a cacophony of gunshots.

Michael jumped up and screamed "" What the hell is that "

"" Don't know but it's coming over from the other side of that cliff"""said Steve panicky but slowly getting himself back under control

"" The outpost is there we gotta go check it out ""said Michael reluctantly

'"I suppose"" Steve said not really wanting to go storming onto a battlefield and getting killed.

Michael picked up on his tone and decided to also slow his pace. He wasn't too keen on getting killed either . "" You think the boss will mind if we just walked there instead of ran."" he offered tentatively

Steve gave him a look as if deciding he was screwing with him or not. Or perhaps this was some kind of loyalty test. But in the end he decided to just go for it and said "" I don't think so"" hedging his bet a bit by avoiding a firm answer one way or the other.

And so they slowly made their way up the cliff making sure to keep silent to not alert any attackers.

The gunshots had long since stopped and they were confident enough to crest the hill. "" Okay this is it lets take a look"" said Steve nervously

Michael wasn't any more eager to pop his head up to get it shot off either but just went for it, banking on not getting spotted immediately. He figured he could then pawn of the next looking duty to Steve so he could get shot and he wouldn't be able to argue against it either.

He looked and saw a ravaged camp, bodies strewn haphazardly about with limbs and faces missing. he promptly got slightly sick and sat back down.

""So hows it look"" asked Steve impatiently

"" it's like something tried to rip them to pieces instead of killing them "" he said while suppressing his gag reflex.

Steve got more scared and hoped it wasn't a bad as it was made out to be"" Really you sure"

"" Yeah go take a look for yourself if you don't believe me"" said Michael having no problem spreading the misery around. If he was going to be sick than Steve might as well be too.

Steve gulped and gathered his courage and then took a look of his own and it really was as advertised. He could faintly make out the appearance of his friend Tom judging from his steel tipped boots. Most guards wore normal boots but he preferred steel tipped ones as he thought they gave him an edge in a battle. Sadly though it didn't seem to have worked well for him. Tom's intestines were lying about seemingly half eaten . He sat back down "" I think it's worse. We might be dealing with a cannibal here. Tom's guts were eaten"'

Michael was getting even more sick to his stomach now. Cannibals were generally creepy motherfuckers you didn't want to get anywhere near off. Though they weren't inherently more dangerous it still upped the fear factor by an significant amount. At least judging from the fact he just hurled his breakfast on his shoes.

"" That's just great. whatta we do"' he complained

'" Hmm let's wait and listen to see if hear anything. it's not like we need to go help those guys anymore"" he offered trying to sound rational and sensible. Though really he was shitting his pants and wanted to hide until they were gone.

Michael read his undertone and agreed fervently and said "' Hmm sound like a good plan let's do it "'

And so they proceeded to do nothing for a good while before they got their courage back up and decided to take another look.

"" I think the coast is clear"" said Steve who had lost at rock paper scissors when they betted on whom to take a look.

Michael got up slowly to not agitate his sleeping leg to much and let some more blood flow through it before walking. Steve was all too happy to wait for him as a good friend should.

Then together they crested the hill and walked down to the outpost. After some reluctant looking around they found the tiger who was responsible for the carnage. "' I think we found our culprit "" said Michael weakly

"" I guess, I completely forgot we had him trapped here but how did he get loose"" wondered Steve getting a bit more bold now that he knew the likely cause for his friends death to be dead as well.

He walked over to the cage and noticed it was wide open and no signs of damage to it. So the tiger couldn't have gotten out by himself. "" That's weird "" he commented

"' Maybe someone left the door open after feeding him"" offered Michael

"" You know as well as I that we throw his meat in between the bars. No one is crazy enough to actually open it"" admonished Steve

"" Hmm so who did then"' asked Michael trying to change the focus from his stupid question

"" I don't know maybe a escaped slave sneaked in to sabotage us""

"" I haven't heard about any escaped slaves "'

"neither have I but we should walk over to the next outpost to report this and ask if there were any screw ups. ""

"" Yeah your right we need to, now that we might get ambushed. "" he agreed and then added "" We also need to report that we didn't arrive on time to save our comrades"" hoping his friend would catch his drift.

"" Yeah it's a shame that we got taken by surprise like that "" Steve agreed to lie on the report. In all honesty it probably was over really quickly judging from the gunshots but their slow response could be edited out.

"" You seen Sean and Will "' asked Michael changing the subject again now that they had agreed to lie and didn't want dwell on it for now.

"" Hmm nope I only count four corpses but how can you tell Sean and William are missing"' asked Steve

Michael shrugged "" I was apprenticed to a shoe tailor for a short while so I recognize the size of their feet and the shoes they wore "'

Steve laughed his ass off"" You sure god didn't forget to add something before he was finished with you"" he mocked

Michael got promptly pissed of "" it's not my fault I notice this stuff. I saw more shoes and learned more about them then most chicks forget in a lifetime. ""

"" Which only serves to underline my point" said Steve good humouredly. Michael embarrassing little skill had put some levity back into the air and he wasn't going to waste it just yet.

"" shut up already"' yelled Michael squeezing his fists

Steve noticed he was going too far and apologized "" sorry no offense or anything ""

Michael grunted and then turned around and took another look through the camp. After a while he said "" It doesn't look like they took anything, all the supplies are still here as far as I can tell""

"" Hmm either they didn't have time because they feared we would show up any second"' theorized Steve. They both got guilty looks for a second and looked away for a bit. He then proceeded "'Or they couldn't carry it or could survive in the forest without it"'

"'I'm guessing the later. there's plenty of useful stuff lying around that only veterans who believe in minimalistic gear would pass up."' argued Michael

"' Like what "asked Steve wanting a clarification as he thought about what kind of slave they were dealing with.

"" Well basics really, like matches, some rations or some building material nothing got taken. Some real lightweight stuff got left behind as well even a compass and survival dagger"'

"" Hmm that's just borderline retarded to pass up "" opinioned Steve

"" I know right but maybe they only cared about attacking us and already got all the stuff they need"" offered Michael

"" It would seem so anyways let's get a move on to the next camp we learned all we can here""

"" What about Sean and Will ""

"" I'm guessing they ran off into the forest when the tiger got free they will turn up eventually. After they get over the shame of abandoning their duty and fear of what Alexander will do to them once he finds out. "" said Steve starting to move to the exit

Michal whistled "That may take a real long time, I wouldn't be surprised we have to hunt them down ourselves""

"" True they might try to escape rather than face our boss's wrath but that isn't our concern"

Neither of them mentioned that they too technically abandoned said duty and left their friends to die. But hey if they reported first then their word would be believed and maybe those guys ran so fast they never noticed them not showing up.

Together they set out for the outpost to the east as it had the closest den den mushi to contact Valsa docks and the prisons. It wasn't unheard of for prisoners to escape during transit to and from the prisons. But still unusual, so maybe they just didn't get informed due to the general miscommunication in the hunt.

They never noticed Miria and Luffy carrying off their prize because Michael was too busy wiping off his vomit. Nor had they looked twice at the strange spot of disturbed ground where somebody might have buried something.

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The next day Steve and Michael were sitting in a building at headquarters. They had made their report and the higher ups got noticeably nervous but didn't tell them why. They just got fed some bull that everything was alright and they should just go back to their duties.

Though said duties did suddenly change to guarding the prison camp ostensibly to make up for the manpower shortage. But neither of them were convinced by this excuse as they both knew that they left this camp lightly guarded all the time during prisoner shipments. The only reason they kept up their guard posts around the island was due to the boss's paranoia.

Though they themselves didn't complain as it meant more work for them which was good as Alexander had cut back on the raids they performed on villages recently. It seemed he feared the marines had to step up and capture somebody at some point and preferred it to be third parties who didn't know much. Though nice in theory as it meant less chance of getting executed it also meant less chance of booty and that other kind of booty.

Secondhand booty just didn't feel right when you knew somebody else used it first. There was just that special feeling when you unwrapped that present for the first time and got that lovely response. Secondhand just fell flat like they already accepted it somewhat, it was still possible to get a reaction out of them but it wasn't the same.

Though they were still other games one could play like acting like the good guy. Give them a little extra food here and there prevent a beating you orchestrated and they might actually become willing to try and squeeze out more favors. It was a fun game to pass the time though you had to be careful in managing expectations and inform the other guys so you wouldn't get shot in the back.

Though no one really got far with it as most other guards liked to screw you over too much by telling the slaves on what your real intentions were. It was fun seeing their reactions at first but that was the end of the game as well. Except of course if you liked to rub their faces in it but that went too far for them.

"" So how long do you figure we'll be stationed here for"" asked Steve lazily not really caring one way or another. A guard was bored no matter where he was posted it only mattered what kind of scenery there was and the climate. It was on the same island so climate didn't factor into it.

"" I overheard some guards talking that the boss is coming back inside of a week. Apparently he is cutting his negotiations short and is selling the slaves at a lower price than usual. So not long I guess"' answered Michael

"' Why would he be in such a hurry that he actually wants to take a loss"" questioned Steve

"" The guy is convinced somebody is on someone's else payroll. There was no report about a escaped slave in fact everyone is accounted for. So someone must have fudged the initial report "" answered Michael

"" What! , that would take at least a dozen people to keep quiet. The guys processing the slaves would all need to be on the take. And there would be a extra slave sitting in the prisons that would eventually get found out regardless of faulty paperwork. So someone would have to sneak them out at some point. ""

"" Right that's why the boss is so anxious right now, he fears someone is going to stab him in the back and take over his organization. "" agreed Michael

"' still why bother covering up one slave unless this is just the first one that escaped them "" said Steve

"" Yep that's another reason the boss is going ballistic. He thinks someone has been skimming of the top for possibly years. "" he chuckled

"" This is no laughing matter you idiot! heads are going to roll we might get killed just for looking normal. Anything less than completely trustworthy is going to get replaced with someone new."" warned Steve now that the situation became clear to him.

"" Nah don't think so, he can't overhaul his entire organization that fast and besides new guys aren't more trustworthy than old guys."' said Michael unconcernedly

"" True he would need to break them in slowly and cant risk them on vital parts or his entire organization might go balls up. "" said Steve calming down somewhat now that he knew had some time before the axe dropped. Hopefully he could see it coming and escape beforehand.

"" Yeah so we're safe for now though he will probably snap at nothing for a good long while and execute people on a whim."

"" You do remember that sketchy report we gave right"" said Steve thinking of all the possible screw ups that might put him on the maybe list which translated to the to be executed list.

chills suddenly appeared on Michael back but said"" It shouldn't raise any eyebrows"" trying to put up a brave face. No point in having a meltdown right now it would only earn them more points against them. Curling up into the fetus position in public does not look good on your resume.

"" I hope so "" said Steve not really believing it himself.

They then noticed a commotion in another building and decided to walk over and relieve their boredom and get their minds of their anxiety. Once they got inside they overheard some yelling "" ong before you can get here ""

"" About half an hour I think"" came back over the den den mushi

This puzzled the pair and they decided to get some answers quickly before they got orders to go do something without knowing what was going on.

Steve grabbed a guard 's arm to get his attention and asked "' what's going on""'

"" Not sure but Richard claims there are intruders in the camp so he Is radioing for help"'

"" Huh intruders you mean that escaped slave came back to free his friends"" said Michael trying to make sense of the situation

"' Possible but Richard said they were too well fed to be slaves . So he is worried someone is infiltrating us from a third party"' the grabbed guard replied

"" What, a third party but who in the bloody hell even knows of this place. The boss pays half his income in bribes to the Marines."' said Steve incredulously

"' That's what got Richard so worried ! He's afraid we're being double crossed by the marines like the boss always feared""

"' Oh shit "' they added unnecessarily

"" My sentiments exactly , but anyways so far we only saw two people enter the prisons and we aren't sure if they have back up or not. ""

"" It might just be a forward reconnaissance team getting cocky and jumped the gun"' rationalized Steve while hoping for the best.

"' Hopefully that's it and we only need to relocate fast and don't have a marine battleship waiting just offshore"' the guard set while pulling his arm out of Steve's grip. He only liked it when women were hanging of him. He could do without hairy burly men thank you very much.

"" Can't we ask the boss to sort this out with the marines to be sure "' said Steve after letting go

"" We could if we could contact the boss or anyone for that matter. After the intruders left for the prison. We sent in men to the communications control room and all the den den mushi for long range communication are knocked out"' said the guard in a annoyed tone whether it was at his predicament or the incessant questions was debatable.

"" Shit how are we supposed contact the boss then "' said Michael worrying about a marine ship landing any second and them not hearing about it until it was too late.

"' We don't you idiot, we got no choice but to hold the fort on our own and hope for the best. "" said the guard in a tone that brooked no arguments.

"" yes sir "" said Steve reluctantly he wasn't eager to fight the marines but at least two intruders could be dealt with easily enough.

"""We're making a make shift barrier to contain the prisoners and hold the line until more reinforcements get here"" instructed the guard who apparently was suddenly their superior officer. Hmm maybe they should take initiative as well and they might get a promotion out of it.

"" Why didn't you just kill them before they got to the prison"" complained Michael to kick this uppity guard down from his pedestal a bit so he could start ordering him around.

"" We should have but we were taking by surprise and while organizing they slipped in. It was already too late when we noticed to stop them so we can count on the slaves joining them unless the guards there stopped them which is unlikely or they would have come out by now"' said the guard somewhat apologetically as it really would have been better.

"" I see well lets go then and take up positions"" said Steve taking advantage of the momentum though he still wanted to go back to the previous building and go back to being bored.

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They soon took up defensive positions and helped build a makeshift wall by placing carts and upturned tables in the middle of the road. They settled in to wait wondering how long it would be for they had enough reinforcements before they would charge or whether they would just starve them out. Personally they hoped for the modified starving out tactic it would mean overtime on guard duty but it was better than charging into small dark tunnels that smelt like shit and meandered around like crazy. Can you spell ambush and possible massacre, well they could and they weren't eager for it.

Their musing got interrupted by a different one namely 'why was a bottle flying through the sky'. It didn't make much sense to them well it didn't up until it hit the ground. It suddenly became real clear why, when they had to rub their eyes to get the glare from the fireball out of it. That bottle had hit way too close for comfort.

"" God dam slaves are getting creative, well hopefully that was the last of them "' Steve said offhandedly

Michael just budged his shoulder a bit and pointed to the sky. Steve looked and saw a sight that inspired more fear than Alexander on a temper tantrum, and that was saying something.

The sky was filled with bottles that blotted out the sky. Well no not really it just felt like that because that was all he could look at. Some other guard got over his confusion quick enough to act and fired of shots at the bottles. This soon caused the other guards to catch on and tried sniping the bottles down before they landed. Sadly it was way too late and difficult to hit those bloody bottles with a flintlock pistol. One bottle was hit but it just sprayed its flaming contents over a larger area before burning out in the air like they hoped.

Steve and Michael dove to the ground to avoid the coming inferno. One random idiot proclaimed fire was raining down from the sky and it was a sign of the apocalypse. Luckily somebody shot him before he got going. A bottle landed near them and they closed their eyes hoping for the best. The fireball exploded in all directions and scorched their backs. They rolled around trying to put it out while screaming in the agony that large third degree burns tend to cause.

Finally they put it out and got enough situational awareness back to realize it was chaos all around. The fire had caught everywhere and would soon enclose them and ensure painful death.

"" We gotta get out of here" yelled Steve though he wasn't looking for confirmation, approval or people to follow him. He just wanted to say it more for himself than for anyone else's benefit.

"" Yeah lets go"" agreed Michael while trying not to strain his burnt back as he followed.

""Hey wait, we need to hold the line and stop those slaves "" argued the guard who had been so helpful in providing all the information about the situation beforehand.

"" Sorry "" Steve said "" For what, don't tell me your abandoning the line""

"" No"' Steve answered which seemed to reassure the guard somewhat thinking he meant he was only too injured to fight on, or was apologizing for his momentary cowardice. But got a serious attitude adjustment when he saw Steve pull out his flintlock pistol and shoot him in the chest.

"" Was that really necessary "" asked Michael

"" Do you want him reporting us to anyone after the battle. Its best to go hide while we wait this fight out and outrun the flames, before they spread any further"" explained Steve somewhat confident that Michael would see it his way. He was proven right when he said "" True but still, anyways we need to move before someone else sees us and we get roped into this again""

"Agreed let's move""

They shuffled their way across the camp trying to avoid anyone from seeing them. When suddenly two houses close to where they used to be exploded inward and showered them in debris.

"" Good thing we moved or we would be underneath that" said Michael who was looking at the now buried dead guard Steve shot.

"" Indeed"' agreed Steve looking around for any possible escape paths.

Soon the air was filled with screams of the foolhardy and the dying. More buildings got smashed to pieces which served as excellent kindling for the fire allowing it to spread wider at a faster rate. Then things got even worse the firebombs stopped landing haphazardly but seemed to target large groups on purpose.

Some other guards spotted them and tried to link up with them. But Steve was having none of that "" get away from us you idiots you'll get us all killed."' They didn't seem to listen so Steve had no choice he pulled out his sword and waited for them to close while still beseeching them t go away.

They reached them and asked "" What are you talking about "" and Steve struck, he quickly cut through one guys stomach and stabbed another before they realized what was going on. Michael realized what he was doing and joined in. ah good Michael, at least one person here isn't retarded.

They soon finished the group off who was taken too much by surprise to fight back much, before it was too late. And the last one who did was finished off with a well placed shot from Michael's flintlock pistol.

"' I hope no one saw that "" said Michael while looking around for any witnesses.

"" Plenty may have seen that but are too busy saving their own hides to actually remember or care what we look like. "' assured Steve while lifting as many flintlock pistols he could shove down his pants or otherwise carry around.

"" I guess "said Michael not really sure but knowing it was too late to complain and it had been necessary. The fire bombs were still raining down on any group larger than six with frightening accuracy. If they allowed those guys to stand even near them it could spell their deaths. And one thing Michael knew for sure, was that he wasn't going to die by immolation. That shit hurt way too much and his back could attest to that.

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"" Hey the slaves aren't coming out"" he said taking advantage of their small breather to look around.

"' Hmm they must either hold them in reserve to charge after they crush our formation completely or they aren't participating in this fight""

"'Do they seriously believe two people alone can beat us"" asked Michael incredulously

"" Look around idiot they already are. The screams you hear are our men dying. The bullets they are firing are only hitting each other. They are merely toying with us"" said Steve taking back his earlier statement about Michael not being an idiot. He was an idiot but at least an sensible idiot which really was preferable as they were easy to boss around and weren't smart enough to branch out on their own.

"" I guess we should link up with that Richard guy who is organizing the resistance or else we'll get killed." said Michael trying to come up with the best way to survive the onslaught.

"' Be my guest if you want but that abomination that can stretch his limbs is raining houses down upon them "" said Steve sarcastically looking back at the formation.

"" Hey what are you guys doing "" they suddenly heard from behind. It was a child like voice but there weren't any children here other than slaves. And those got killed if they were younger than fifteen. So naturally they were all afraid and tried acting older than they actually were but this voice wasn't scared at all. And any child on this island should know damn well what they were doing so that only left their intruders and that he was being sarcastic too.

They turned around slowly not really wanting to see what they were about too. But apparently the kid got impatient and just slugged them through a building right into a fire. They screamed in agony as they felt their flesh melting due to the intense heat but were unable to get up and run. Because they're bones had been broken when they smashed through the wall.

It took about fifteen minutes for the fire to eat through their skin and reach their vital organs before they could die. But those fifteen minutes felt more like fifteen years as most of one's nerve endings were located in the skin and each and every single one of them was being burned to a crisp.

The last thought going through Michael's mind was the thought of his backstabbing friend getting to live happily ever after, which really pissed him off.

Author notes plus spoiler alert

I decided Miria gets to live so in her place someone else must die so meet the sacrificial tributes. I tried fleshing them out a little bit without going too deep into their back story none of you care about and at the same time make the guards less two dimensional. I think it came out nicely and hopefully you guys agree.

Special thanks go out to doubledamn who pointed out a perceived mistake which got me thinking about other mistakes I made. and I landed on why in bloody hell did those checkpoint guys not notice their friends getting slaughtered on the other side of the hill. I know hills might limit the sound waves somewhat which is why they place barriers next to the highway but still. That just screamed error to me when I thought about it so thanks.

The moral of this story is to criticize anything you see and to be specific : )


	10. Chapter 10 Payback is a bitch

Chapter ten : Payback is a bitch

Miria pushed open the door and surveyed the scene outside. Luffy had certainly been busy, everywhere there were unconscious guards lightly sprinkled with wooden debris, just the way she liked it. "" Hey luffy where are ya" she yelled already straining against her wound to do just that. She hadn't realized how much she moved her midriff when she yelled before. Luffy soon showed up with Vera in tow who had a wide grin on her face. Miria briefly wondered what put it there.

"" Miria good news we beat the guards back into a retreat"' then he saw her bleeding abdomen "' What happened to you !"" he yelled disbelievingly "' I got cut while running with scissors Luffy "' joked Miria "" Really"" asked Luffy seemingly trying to buy that. Miria had to cut him off before he got weird "' Nah got sloppy and paid the price"

Vera looked at the wound and said "" That looks lethal not to mention painful""

"" That it is kid, I'm done for unless I find a doctor within two days or so"' chuckled Miria trying to keep up a brave face. She was losing the strength to stand fast but wasn't that bothered to remain upright anyway. She would only lose some of her dignity if she collapsed here, and really what use was dignity when you had a hole in your stomach big enough to stick your fist in. So she dropped like a stone and unceremoniously hit the ground.

She had half expected Luffy to catch her but even that fairy tale ending was denied unto her it seemed. He had tried but was too stunned to move fast enough while Vera didn't seem to care, the little bitch. He made up for it though by cradling her head against his chest . "'No you can't die, we were going to sail the grand line together"' cried Luffy

"" Sorry Luffy, I screwed up."" she apologized "' But do me a favor and bury me in Collinsport my home town next to my mother Dasja."" she pleaded. She was unsure whether or not to tell Luffy her real name right now. She was going to die and would like to be buried next to her parents but didn't want it to become known that she had become anything less than a respectable marine. She guessed she couldn't have her cake and eat it too.

Luffy was desperate he wanted to save his best friend and first mate but knew nothing that could possible save her. The medicinal herbs his gramps had rammed into his head during his childhood wouldn't be enough to save her. If it was just a flesh wound it would have been fine but it had bit into her internal organs somewhat. The flesh wound he could have burned shut and combined with the herbs and a steady diet of meat she would recover in a few weeks. She would complain about the scar but she would still be alive, but that nicked organ was beyond his skill to fix.

Luffy's hand started glowing a white light which surprised everyone. "' Huh Luffy what are you doing"' asked Miria who was getting comfortable in Luffy's arms and suddenly found it a much easier task. Luffy himself was stunned for words, before his very eyes Miria's wound was slowly healing including that nicked organ. "' Hmm that looks useful."' said Vera when she didn't get a response she pressed on and asked "' I didn't know you had two devil fruit abilities Luffy"'

Though some of the guards were ignorant of devil fruits she herself had figured it out before she got kidnapped. Hell the reason she got kidnapped was because she couldn't resist showing it off to her friends. So it didn't surprise her that Luffy only showed his weaker devil fruit and kept his more useful one hidden. If anyone powerful ever found out about it he would be locked in a cell just like her. But she had always thought that you could only eat one devil fruit and a second one would be the deadliest poison.

Luffy still didn't answer too amazed by what was going on, Miria's wound had finished healing not even leaving behind a scar. "' Luffy answer Vera, its rude to keep a lady waiting "" quipped Miria though she too was extremely curious how Luffy had two devil fruits. "' Huh ah what "' spoke Luffy eloquently. "How did you get two devil fruits Luffy "' repeated Miria in a kind voice while trying not grab him and choke the answer out of him. Luffy thought for a second and said "' Well I remember eating the gomu gomu fruit and it hurt like hell so maybe I got two for the price of one"'

"' There is no such thing you idiot"' said Miria losing her patience, though it could be possible she guessed. However the gomu gomu fruit was well documented enough that it was unlikely.

"" Devil fruits don't hurt they merely taste bad"" supplied Vera helpfully who was equally intrigued by the mystery. "' Yeah that's right, do you remember anything else that happened that day"" asked Miria also remembering nothing but a foul taste.

"' Hmm I remember thinking that maybe devil fruits were poisonous, at least that one seemed to be."'

"' That one "" repeated Miria "' Are you implying you ate several?"' asked Vera impressed he had the guts to do so.

Luffy thought long and hard and said "' Well there was that one time when I was chased by wolves when I ate something similar but it was ju"'

""That's it!"' they screamed in unison "' You did eat two devil fruits but the first one had to be the healing fruit and that let you survive the second one"' theorized Miria

"' Do you think he could survive another if he mastered his fruit better"' asked Vera pondering the issue.

"' Hmm possibly, going off the fact that he only now realizes he has it. He only scratched the surface of its power when he ate the gomu gomu fruit. So if he does harness its full powers he could possibly eat even a dozen devil fruits"' Miria excitedly answered

"'Hmm wouldn't that hurt though"" interjected Luffy

"' You idiot you could possibly ingest several logia powers. If you do that becoming pirate king won't be a mere dream but only the natural end result."'

"Just raw power won't be enough to become pirate king"' warned Vera

"' Your right but still,"" she conceded to Vera but then turned to Luffy ""it will give you a big advantage"' said Miria who until now hadn't really believed he could become the pirate king if it meant going up against the logia admirals. But with this he could even out the playing field.

"" It is also assuming you find another logia fruit which is highly unlikely"' said Vera continuing to rain on Miria's parade.

"' Then he will simply settle for useful paramecia ones then"" countered Miria "' White beard is the strongest man alive and he has a paramecia fruit so it isn't impossible"' argued Miria

Luffy had stayed out of the argument but was smiling at the fierce debate coming from his newly recovered first mate. He wasn't sure whether Miria was right or not but was willing to give it a go. Her logic hadn't been wrong yet just her plan execution. Luffy might have to talk to her about that afterwards. She came up with a lot of good plans to tackle situations but didn't cover all her bases properly. Maybe it was some rookie mistakes that would iron themselves out, but her sloppiness had already almost cost Miria her life.

"" I guess so but why only paramecia"" asked Vera curiously

"" Well zoan only increases strength, speed and regenerative abilities."' said Miria

"' So? those are useful as well"' asked Vera

"' Yeah but you can increase speed and strength by yourself and he already has the most powerful regenerative abilities most likely. So it would be better to focus on paramecia in case there is a limit to how many fruits his healing fruit can sustain without his body breaking down"' argued Miria already fearing for the worst. Which was that Luffy might just one day disintegrate into a puddle of flesh and bones if he ate one too many.

"' Point taken "' conceded Vera though she added "' Though I doubt we'll even find enough fruits to come close to that limit whether we' re picky or not. Unless we somehow become rich enough to promise ridiculously high rewards for them. ""

"'Yeah but money is no good in the face of superior force so it would be a good investment"' argued Miria back. Noticing the 'we' Vera had used in her sentence, this meant that Vera was already seeing herself as part of the group. Maybe her captain really could convince her to join them after they set out again.

'' I guess"' said Vera shrugging it off "' Hey shouldn't we get those slaves out of the caves before those guards come back."' She then added trying to change the subject now that she was done playing devil's advocate.

Miria beamed now that she not only used 'we' but also started proposing plans for the group. "" Yeah lets go before they start wondering what's taking so long"' said Luffy standing up again. ""Hey wait a minute, do not under any circumstances tell the other slaves about your healing power"' cautioned Miria "' But what if they need medical help, now that I know I can do this shouldn't I help them"''

Before Miria could respond Vera interjected"' I agree with Miria, if you show off they will tell their friends back home and word will spread. and then one day powerful people will show up at your door and hold your family hostage unless you go with them."' said Vera speaking from experience.

"' Are they still being held hostage "" asked Miria wondering if this was the key that Alexander had over her "'No they died some time ago during one of Alexander's tests of loyalty"' Vera replied while giving of the impression that she didn't want to talk about it.

They were quiet for a while before Luffy urged them to go back to the mine entrance. It was a silent walk over, no one quite knowing what to say to that. Meanwhile Miria's mind was in overdrive thinking of what this meant in the relationship between Alexander and Vera. Did she fail a loyalty test and her parents got killed as punishment by Alexander. Or was the loyalty test itself to kill her own parents to sever the last remaining connection with her old life, and force her to never want to consider humans as anything but it's or take the responsibility for her own actions.

Again it could go both ways, though the last one was considerably more awful than the former. But with all the repeated 'he is a psychopath' lines she heard from the guards it was still a possibility.

They arrived back inside the mine and saw the slaves cheering their victory and eating what little food Luffy had left. "" You know Luffy you could have left something for the starving"" Miria joked

Luffy shrugged ""I'm a pirate not a hero, and I didn't think of it"" This statement sent a collective wave of fear through the crowd of slaves. They suddenly feared they're would be saviors were no different from their tormentors. Miria had to fix this before it was too late once that belief entrenched itself in their minds. They wouldn't believe them no matter what they said, and the only thing worse than deadweight like these slaves was struggling deadweight. "' Don't worry we are not here to hurt you. We'll just put you on a ship and let you sail home""

"" Really"" asked one of the slaves unsure if he should take her word for it.

"" No they're really here to massacre all of you, that's why they let you out of your cells""'Vera sarcastically replied giving them a look that was asking them if they were mentally challenged.

That silenced the crowd and In an attempt to seem less stupid they argued back"" They could have done that to add some more thrill to the hunt""

Vera turned to Luffy and Miria and said "" You know they do have a point, will you give us weapons too or just a head start"" throwing a monkey wrench in the works for the hell of it.

The slaves were getting more scared now and were clutching their loved ones. "" You really like screwing with us don't you"" asked Miria severely annoyed. "' No just with him "" said Vera cheekily

This threw Miria for a loop does this mean she likes Luffy or likes messing with him or is she really just messing with me. Luffy missed their byplay and just focused on the slaves "" We won't hunt down anyone, there is a ship close by that you can take home. If you don't believe us you can take the weapons of the fallen guards as a precaution"" trying to placate them

This appeased them and slowly they moved out of the mine "' You know I never thought it would be this damn hard to save people. It's like getting a stubborn mule to move."' complained Miria

"' Yeah but let's get them on the boat before Vera has another bright idea"" said luffy while shifting the weight of the chest around Miria had insisted he take with him.

Miria couldn't agree more with that statement the sooner they were gone the better. They led the slaves across the bridge and through the ruin of the camp. The slaves gathered up some supplies and more weapons and they set out again. They left through the valley towards the east rather than follow the river. Both Miria and Luffy felt that using the river was too obvious. There wasn't much time to build rafts anyway or necessity to swim and float down it. So they moved east through the forest and hills to the closest beach where they had relocated their ship. Well the pirates' ship really, they were a bit unsure what to do with them now that their usefulness had run out and there wasn't much space on the ship to carry all the slaves as it was.

"' Hey Luffy these slaves will be packed tighter than a can of sardines ""

Luffy got her drift and replied "" I know but we don't know if any of these guys can sail a ship"'

"" So let' s ask, its better if we leave em here anyway so they can't commit mutiny and take the slaves back to Alexander ""

"" your right these slaves are so easily cowed that one look from them will be enough to take over the ship. But we can't expect them to sail by themselves either without training""

"" Why don't you just keep a few tied up on the ship and keep back the rest. The tied up ones can be asked questions if need be and by themselves they can' t take over the ship."' supplied Vera who got the gist of what they were talking about by overhearing them.

"" Good idea Vera "" said Luffy padding her on the back, she smiled back at him.

The trip to the boat was uneventful, the slaves kept their distance from them as if they feared they would grow a second head any second. Luffy was playing hide and go seek with Vera in the forest although not the children's version but the adult version.

They were scouting for any guards lurking in the area and whoever found the most won. The problem was that Vera didn't bother killing them just outing them in a loud voice. Which forced her to hightail it over there to kill him before he got away. She swore she was doing it on purpose judging by that satisfied smirk on her face although that could also be because she was ahead.

Miria was again wondering how to judge Vera. She had always thought killing was bad and all those who killed belonged in jail. So she would cheer on the marines who went out and grabbed them and threw them in jail and looked the other way if they tortured them a bit. But that was effectively kidnapping, imprisonment and assault. If you combine this with all their priors and most marines would be looking at life in prison if not for the fact that pirates had no rights. So in legal terms of years in prison Vera wasn't as bad as any other marine. She might even plead to mitigating circumstances or temporary insanity she certainly could pull it off if she wanted to. Or maybe plead she did all of it under duress and get off that way.

Comparing that to the marines who did it all off their own free will and no duress other than the one they willingly put themselves under namely the military hierarchy. Was she really worse than veteran marines or not.

Hmm mass murderers without a conscience and upstanding marines had more in common then she thought once you stopped looking at it through rose tinted glasses. You could even say that the targeted genocide of a particular group of the population namely pirates was worse in purely theoretical terms if you ignored the fact they killed people too. For some reason people prefer it that someone kills indiscriminately. Instead of just killing whores or women who look like their ex girlfriend. It feels more democratic that way, everyone should get a equal chance to die.

"" Hey Vera what kind of fruit do you actually have "' asked Miria

Vera looked at her while tilting her head slightly as if seeking a opening for a bit of mischief. "" Hmm guess"" Miria had to grumble at that, was a simple answer too much to ask for.

"" Is it a logia fruit?"'

"' Not like that, that's boring. Guess what my ability is"" she cheekily interrupted with a precocious smile on her face.

"" But that will take forever "" complained Miria

"" So , it's not like you have anything better to do right now?"' She asked while arching one eyebrow

Luffy enthusiastically started guessing while Miria just stayed quiet. She refused to be drawn into that little hellion's mind games anymore. Well she probably would still end up getting caught but at least this one she was sitting out.

They kept up the guessing game all the way to the coast where Miria and Luffy had left the pirate crew tied up after positioning the ship.

"" Now all we need to do is get the slaves on board and we are half way there"" exclaimed Luffy and then ran off to get the process moving. Miria was also smiling at reaching this mile pole. But she then noticed Vera wasn't smiling but was rather looking conflicted.

"" I'm sorry I can't let you do that. Alexander told me to kill any slave I saw leaving the island without his permission"" she said in a emotionless voice. Miria went into panic mode they had triggered a standing order. She had wondered how long they could get away without activating one.

"" Luffy get the slaves on board throw them if you have to! We don't have time"' Miria screamed while getting ready to face a veritable juggernaut that looked like a little girl. Although she was relieved that she didn't have to stop her with her powers at least.

Vera gave a chuckle at that "" You can' t stop me"" She deadpanned and then took out a small key from inside her pocket. "Is that what I think it is"' Miria asked with unmistaken able dread in her voice.

"""That depends, do you think this is the key to my cuffs if so then yes"" Vera mocked cruelly

"" But I thought Luffy said only Alexander has the key to your cuffs"" asked Miria although she already accepted being played for a fool. She did at least want confirmation and any extra information she might get.

"" That's true and untrue at the same time"" Vera said coyly while slowly putting in the key in her cuffs.

"" I'm really getting fed up with those word games of yours"' said a annoyed Miria while taking out her dagger judging if she could take her out with soru before she unlocked herself.

"" This key doesn't unlock my cuffs "" said Vera stoically which surprised Miria"" If it doesn't open it then why bother putting it in""

""Because by activating the mechanism inside the cuffs it adds a layer in between my skin and the cuffs to allow me access to some of my powers. I'm still too weak to use most of it but enough to kill all of you. "" Vera explained while she extended her right arm and turned it into a huge steel sword.

Miria gulped if that was only a fraction then what did her full power look like. she also cursed that she had missed her opportunity to grab the key because she was too distracted by Vera's little show and tell.

Vera charged surprisingly fast for a girl supposedly locked away for the majority of her days while carrying a huge piece of hardware. Miria charged as well hoping to close in fast enough to dodge the sword. Something that big had to be hard to maneuver so the basic principle had to be similar to a spear. Dodge the first strike and bypass the pointy end and you had the spearman at your mercy. The only difference was that it was a big ass sword instead of a piece of wood. Miria hoped her dagger would hold up against it as she didn't have anything else to protect her more squishy parts with.

The sword came in from the left faster than expected but she still made it into Vera's guard by using soru at the last second which caught Vera off guard. But she was deprived of her kill shot when suddenly spikes emerged from the sword completely bypassing her dagger defense. She dodged to the right to gain a bit of distance but was only rewarded with the sight of more spikes appearing on Vera.

Mira watched Vera closely and decided to back up a bit to come up with a new game plan. She had only just jumped back when Vera decided to fire off a spike barrage. Miria panicked and ducked and rolled behind a tree. The landscape got littered with small spikes in varying sizes and shattered trees. Miria was awestruck at the sheer damage of that last attack "" Hey what kind of metal are you made off "" she asked to stall for time.

Vera pouted "" Now that would be telling and I told you to guess. "" She then turned her sword into a shield. This made no sense to Miria until Vera turned around and blocked a gomu gomu bazooka from Luffy. "" Vera why are you doing this ! I thought we were friends"' he yelled at her with tears streaming from his eyes.

Vera stayed silent for a few seconds while looking down making it hard to see her expression"" I saw the slaves leave the island therefore I had no choice but to kill them. "' She forced out and then transformed her other arm into a hammer to swat Luffy away.

Miria was suddenly struck by inspiration by the repeated 'I saw' comment. The exact order featured a seeing with her eyes component. This meant the phrasing was like 'if you see any slaves leave the island kill them'. Vera was fine with them escaping so long as they hadn't left the island yet but now that she was actually seeing them leave she had no choice but to stop them. She wasn't following the spirit of the order but only the exact letter of it.

"" Luffy we have to blind her"' Miria yelled while rushing back in to the action

"' What "" he yelled back after narrowly dodging another thrust from Vera's spear which suddenly sprouted new cutting surfaces after his initial dodge.

"' The standing order is if she sees slaves escape she has to stop them. so long as she doesn't see it she won't stop us"' Miria quickly explained

"" You sure"' asked Luffy for confirmation with hope shining in his eyes

"" Yeah so long as we either get her away from here or blindfold her she will be as docile as a lamb again"" confirmed Miria while trying to come up with a plan to actually do it.

"' Yosh then let' s get started"' yelled Luffy and promptly picked up a tree trunk that was sliced by Vera and charged her with it. Miria saw it and had to agree that it was a solid tactic as it doubled as a weapon and a shield.

She followed closely behind Luffy to take advantage of any openings she might show after dealing with the huge piece of wood. Vera seemed unimpressed and merely fired of another barrage of spikes which thudded into the tree. Luffy had difficulty catching all of the spikes as the tree was too heavy to move around fast enough so resorted to moving himself around the tree to dodge the spikes.

They soon closed the distance again and Luffy swung down diagonally to tie up on of Vera's arms at least. Vera transformed her legs into a half spherical object and her arm again into a shield and took the full brunt of the attack. With no traction thanks to her ball like legs she merely skidded across the ground moving along with the attack causing no real damage to her.

Miria was impressed with her thinking but saw a opening now that she was using so many limbs to absorb the attack. She used soru to appear at her back from a blind spot created by her shield and tree trunk blocking her view. She then proceeded to stab her in the left shoulder.

Vera screamed in agony and immediately fired off another barrage of spikes in every direction to prevent any follow up attacks.

"' What you do that for, you said we only had to blind her"' complained Luffy

"" Well how do you expect to do that when she can toy around with us like that. At least now she has a opening on her left side. We can use that to knock her out and besides you can heal her anyway"'

"" I guess but still "" grumbled Luffy still not pleased with how they were treating Vera. Who he realized didn't have any choice in the matter.

"" Luffy unless you prefer to die its either this or a full retreat together with the slaves. Speaking of which what happened to them"' asked Miria

""Oh I got them all on board and told them to wait for us just off shore"" said Luffy proudly

Miria looked over to the sea and saw the boat they had commandeered sailing around the corner of the island out of sight "" Luffy how far off shore were they supposed to go ?"" she questioned

"" Hmm only just out of the deep end so I could catapult us on board if the fight turned against us. "" said Luffy proud of his forethought for once.

"" Hmm good idea but why are they already that far out. Did they get caught in some current or something or did you free the pirates to make the process faster""

"" Hmm no I left the pirates tied up, I just threw them on board like you said and told them to stay just off shore"" replied Luffy wondering why Miria was asking all these questions. He was keeping his eyes firmly on Vera who was slowly recovering from her shoulder wound.

"'Hmm i see"" said Miria quietly and then screamed "' Lousy no good slaves goddamn those back stabbing bastards!""

Luffy was taken aback by this and asked "" What is wrong Miria ""

"" I'll tell you what' s wrong! The bloody bastards left without us."" she fumed pointing at the ship disappearing into the distance. "" And what' s worse is they left us to die against Vera if it wasn't for the fact that Vera doesn't want to kill us but only wants stop them from escaping in the first place"' she ranted

"' Hmm isn't that a good thing maybe Vera will calm down now"' Luffy added trying to add a silver lining

""'I feel so used "" lamented Miria and then stopped when she got a spike through her left thigh when she wasn't paying attention. Luffy was doing much better who had two spikes through his guts as well and one in his left foot.

"" That hurt you bitch! "" complained Vera who slowly advanced on them. Miria really hated her choice of tactics now that she thought about it. Yes calming someone down by stabbing them, it wasn't one of her brighter ideas.

"" Ahm sorry about that. "" She apologized in a meek voice trying not to piss Vera off any more than she already had.

Vera didn't seem to be in a forgiving mood as she fired of a volley of metal balls at her and Luffy which caused bruises the size of footballs on her body. Luffy was better off thanks to his rubber body and merely bounced them back. This amused Vera and she turned it into a game. She transformed her left hand into a bat and used her right arm to guide it. She hit some of the balls back to Luffy and called out her score. ""Three out of ten, that's just pathetic I need more practice""

She then made more balls and fired them at Luffy again who screamed in agony whenever they came close to his stomach wounds. Though he might not get hurt from blunt attacks if you have a two foot spike still stuck inside of you its gonna hurt whether you are rubber or not.

Miria tried to get Vera's attention by helping her oddly enough "" Your technique is a bit off try holding your arms in a triangle like position that has a forty five degree angle to the ground."" She recited from memory from the time she had tried learning baseball by reading a book about it.

Vera looked at her oddly, unsurprisingly and asked "" Why are you helping me? ""

Miria shrugged while slowly inching the spike out of her thigh"" It seemed more likely to get you to stop then asking you to stop "' she deadpanned

and then there was silence only interrupted by Miria and now also Luffy trying to get the spikes out of their respective bodies.

Then suddenly out of nowhere Vera started laughing "' That's …"" she trailed off seemingly at a loss for words""

"" Smart, imaginative, original, genius take your pick "" Miria supplied trying to ride the wave of the unintended joke.

"" Hmm more like stupid but oh well "" Vera said and then looked out to sea again"" Hmm those guys aren't in sight anymore. They must have caught a favorable wind or something""

Miria and Luffy were silent not sure what to say to that. "" So Luffy wanna play hide and go seek again"" she said in a upbeat voice.

Miria immediately thought of all the horrible implications of that seemingly innocent question. but Luffy just said "" Sure but I'm kinda hurt ""

"" Oh don't be such a baby"' she reprimanded and moved over to Luffy and kicked him in the shin.

"" You got a healing fruit remember just pull it out and heal it, honestly did you forget you had it already."' Luffy got a sheepish look on his face and looked away while scratching the back of his head. Miria and Vera both sweat dropped at that display of utter stupidity.

"" Seriously!"" they both yelled simultaneously

"" If you forget something as basic and crucial as that you deserve to die "' complained Vera while crossing her arms in front of her.

Miria piped in"" I actually agree with her on that Luffy "'

"" You guys that's mean"" whined Luffy

Vera sighed "" I can' t even bring myself to kill you now, after that pathetic display""

"' Really "" asked Luffy

"" Nope I lied "' deadpanned Vera and then transformed a axe out of her right hand and swung down. Luffy rolled out of the way and then gritted his teeth and pulled out his spikes. He screamed in agony but did it nonetheless and then healed his wounds with his heal heal fruit.

"" Now that's better"" approved Vera and then fired off another barrage of spikes.

Luffy dodged and then moved over to Miria and pulled out her spike as well much to her displeasure. and then healed her as well while Vera gave them a brief respite though neither of them were sure why.

They then got up and got ready to fight wondering how in hell they were going to beat Vera.

"''Hmm nicely done now heal me too."" asked Vera straight faced

"" Why in bloody hell would we wanna do that "' asked Miria while holding her thigh remembering the injury.

"" Because I went easy on you guys ""Vera pointed out

"" How the hell do you think impaling us and battering us with metal balls is going easy"" yelled Miria angrily

Vera merely held up her arm and let loose another volley of spikes to the side. Only this time it was twice as fast as those she fired at Luffy and Miria. "" I could have killed you a dozen times over that's how. Besides he's rubber so a few love taps weren't going to hurt him"" she stated calmly

Miria looked at her disbelievingly. She really had gone easy on them while she was going full throttle. those spikes could have impaled her easily several times over in that fight. "" So why did you go easy on us instead of killing us "" asked Luffy

"' Simple like Miria said. if I see slaves escaping I have to stop them. But it doesn't really say how hard I have to try now does it."" She said coyly while cocking her head to the side with her hands folded behind her back giving her a cute girl look.

"" Then why didn't you stop when you no longer could see the slaves escaping"" questioned Miria

"" because you stabbed me and payback is a bitch "" Vera deadpanned while pointing at her still bleeding shoulder.

"" I guess that makes sense" Luffy nodded while going over to heal her shoulder.

Miria was annoyed to say the least that she only got shredded to pieces because of her trigger happy attitude. First the operator then that guardsman that sliced her stomach open and now Vera who had her dead to rights. Maybe she needed a bit of therapy to examine the underlying issues and all that crap. But for now when she looked at it from Vera's perspective she'd be pissed too if someone stabbed her when she was going easy on them.

"" Sorry for stabbing you Vera , I guess I deserved that"' Miria apologized.

"' That you did "" agreed Vera cheerfully

"" But why did you play that ball game with Luffy"" she asked

"" Because it was fun "" Vera dead panned

Miria sweat dropped but otherwise said nothing. It's always best not to piss off someone who can easily kill you.

"" Let' s play it again sometime "' agreed Luffy who somehow didn't have a completely irrational hatred of all baseball related games.

Miria sighed "" sounds good I'll be the catcher next time"'

Vera beamed at this and started transforming her arm back into a bat again.

"' Hey how are we supposed to get off this island without a ship. "' asked Luffy before the game got underway.

"" Good question"" agreed Miria while grumbling under her breath about bloody backstabbing scum.

She narrowly dodged a metal ball coming her way that got deflected off of Luffy

"" Hey you're supposed to catch it not dodge it"" complained Vera

"" Sorry about that I got distracted "" said Miria who was firmly of the mindset that if you can't beat them join them. She caught the next ball and threw it back to Luffy doubling as the pitcher as well. overall it was a entertaining game if a little silly. Well until she heard Vera call out ""Switch places! "'She got cold sweats right then and there.

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After Vera got done with her revenge or having a little fun as she called it. Miria got to thinking about how to get off the bloody island while nursing a killer headache. "" What's wrong Miria "" asked Luffy still smiling from the game. "" Hmm let's see I'm having a hard time choosing between stuck on a slave trader island and getting bashed in the head with a thirty six pound cannon ball"" she yelled

Luffy thought about and said "" Definitely the cannon ball"" absolutely straight-faced like he was dead serious. Which really pissed of Miria but getting angry only made her headache even worse. So she just lied back down and tried to forget Luffy even existed, a hard task even on a normal day.

Vera tried to be helpful"" Why don't you just mosey on over to Valsa docks and wait for Alexander to show up and ambush him"" Miria was having a hard time thinking straight so she refrained for now so the thinking fell to Luffy.

"" Hmm that sounds good. Some slavers we captured mentioned it had many good spots to hide and ambush. If we can stake it out, we can commandeer a clients ship or worst case salvage one of the shipwrecks"'

"" Luffy we don't know anything about shipbuilding if we tried we'd drown for sure"" critiqued Miria. she may have trouble thinking but that didn't stop her from criticizing.

Vera piped in"" Just force the slavers to tell you when the next ship is supposed to come in and enjoy a little vacation. No need to spend all day staking out rotten carcasses in the hot sun""

"" You mean wooden carcasses right "" asked Miria for clarification

""'Naturally"" agreed Vera pleasantly

"" Sounds good lets go before the sun sets"" said Luffy

Miria however disagreed "" Give me another minute I'm not going through that jungle with this head ache and these bruises""

"" I'll carry you then "" said Luffy and before Miria could protest swung her unto his back and started trekking into the woods. Vera smiled at the display and followed the screams of indignation into the forest as well.

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After some time Miria calmed down and stopped protesting but was still stewing silently so neither Luffy nor Vera poked her too much. Though Vera personally thought the lady doth protest too much.

""Hey Vera aren't there supposed to be more outpost somewhere around this island"' asked Luffy knowing full well the answer from the map the prisoners drew for Miria but wanted a answer to start up a conversation.

"' Yeah but I never been to one of them so I can' t say where they are"'

"'I see maybe we can play another game later where we track down and destroy the different outposts"" suggested Luffy

"" I can' t one of Alexander's orders is that I can never under no conditions destroy one of his outposts without his permission"" answered Vera stoically

"" Hmm that permission you keep talking about is it written or verbal"" asked Luffy

"" Hmm so far only verbal not sure if he will ever use written"" said Vera thinking about it herself

"" I guess written has its advantages and disadvantages. One the one hand it leaves a written trail of his orders for others to find loop holes in like we did, without relying on luck and your benevolence. on the other writing it out allows him to close them up easier and order you around from a distance""

"" Though that opens it up to forgery as well"" interjected Luffy

""True "" said Miria who then got an idea about forging Alexander' s voice over a den den mushi to counteract some of his previous orders.

"" Hey vera do you ever get orders per den den mushi"" she asked as nonchalantly as possible

" Yeah when he is too lazy to come get me himself he just yells them through a baby den den mushi a guard holds near my cell. "" Vera recounted

Miria wanted to jump for joy at this man' s laziness. But she refrained if only barely to not give away her game to Vera. not to mention she was currently riding Luffy's back and she didn't want to give any wrong impressions.

""Hey Luffy" she asked trying to change the subject now that she had what she needed" Why did you leave my treasure chest behind on that beach now we have to go back to get it.

Luffy didn't answer he just kept on walking. Miria poked him "" Come on I know you can hear me answer me"

"' Well you see the thing is.. """' he trailed off

"" Out with it"" Miria pressed not liking where this was going

"" I kinda threw it onboard together with the slaves"" said Luffy in a quiet voice she only heard because she was pressed up against him.

Miria blew a fuse and cursed loudly about how she was going to hunt that cowardly bunch down who stole her hard won money. Luffy tried calming her down by pointing out that they needed the money more than they did. But it didn't really satisfy Miria who wasn't in a charitable mood towards the slaves anymore after their treatment of her. Dismissive sure, ignoring her fine but scared shitless like she was the devil incarnate and then ripping her off and leaving her to die killed any goodwill she had towards them.

They listened to her rant until they reached Valsa docks. Though the only reason why Miria kept up her rant was due to helpful reminders from Vera of wrongdoings real or just imagined that fueled her anger much to Luffy's annoyance.

They reached the valley that connected to Valsa docks and in the distance they could see the old shipwrecks like old galleons stripped bare of its inner planking leaving only the keel. Miria was feeling better after being able to vent but Luffy was panting like he was on his last legs. " Luffy are you alright"" Vera asked. "" Yeah I'm fine just a bit tired for some reason"" he waved of their concern. Miria briefly wondered if she was too heavy but she had seen him carry heavier loads for longer periods so that couldn't be it. then Luffy tripped over his own two feet and collapsed onto the ground. " Hey Luffy you alright talk to me"" she tried shaking him to get a response.

Vera took a closer look and said"" He's asleep Miria""

Miria calmed down somewhat and said "" Odd this guys stamina is nearly endless there' s no way he should fall asleep because he's tired.""

"" Hmm maybe it's the cost of using the fruit. When I use mine it's still a physical and mental exertion it's not effortless so his probably also takes a toll."" explained Vera

"" I guess, we better go set up camp then and wait till he wakes up"" agreed Miria deferring to Vera's greater expertise when It came to devil fruits.

Author notes plus spoiler alert

I decided to stick to my original scene however obvious it was. Though mostly it's because I'm too lazy to write a new one and I kinda liked the old one.

thanks go to thevictor who writes Once again the first one piece story I read and inspired me to write my own. also thanks for the recommendation some reviewers mentioned.

those wondering about useful paramecia's just think of exploding booger man. that guy used the wrong medium he should have used his own blood and learned fishman karate. imagine a exploding horseback archery, it would be the equivalent of a buster call bombardment. combine that with the heal heal fruit and luffy can throw his arm at his enemies which will be like an atomic bomb.

luffy probably won't find another logia fruit with the possible exception of ace's mera mera fruit to keep him from getting overpowered but I might add a new paramecia at some point. but chances of finding those will be slim as well as only on enies lobby do we actually see uneaten devil fruits in cannon. off course said additions bring risk of death and possible other side effects to balance it out.

and yes I know this is similar to the yami yami fruit from blackbeard but seriously that's all that power is good for. anyone should be able to fight in close quarters without their fruit. Mihawk would kill him in five minutes flat and most of it would be listening to Teach boast about something. if he hadn't absorbed whitebeards power he wouldn't be a credible yonkou and I still doubt he beat ace without his team helping him.

I kinda cheated with the special sea stone cuffs to give a mini boss fight with Vera. it seemed logical that Alexander would create a intermediate step rather than just turn her loose and hope for the best. I also made the fight because after all the talk about standing orders I had to have them trigger at least one, and fighting a shackled fifteen year old girl doesn't sound scary. that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

her full powers will be a bit more similar to the iron sands of the third kazekage. the main feature of logia powers is turning into their respective element so I envisioned vera being able to turn into metal dust. it will be somewhat similar to aokiji breaking apart into blocks of ice. he was the only solid element user in the cannon story everyone else had a liquid or gas form or semi liquid in case of mud. also they didn't t blind her because that's too contrived and she didn't stop right away because mercy isn't in her nature she is more playfully cruel. and why can't a bad guy just let the good guys leave on a whim the good guys do it all the time.

ps for those wondering what vera looks like look for black cat's Eve or To love ru's yami. and miria looks like hysteria from claymore.

pps is anyone interested in a slave pov like the guards pov


	11. Chapter 11 A pleasant surprise

**chapter eleven" A pleasant surprise**

Luffy woke up feeling groggy like he had drunk two barrels of sake without sipping a glass of water before sleeping. The light was too bright, the sounds were too loud and that feeling in his stomach hinted the bathroom was too far away. He closed his eyes again and just felt around with his body where he was.

He was lying on some leaves too tightly compressed to be natural so someone had made him a bed. He could smell the faint smell of smoke in the air so someone had either been cooking or it was a left over from the fire to keep them warm last night. Or perhaps it was to keep the flies away Miria liked to complain about. He didn't smell any food so it was probably the latter so no point in getting up.

He focused on the sounds some more now that they weren't deafening him anymore and heard the faint rustling of clothes as someone seemed to move around him. He wondered who it was but didn't have to wonder long when someone kicked him in the side and said" Wake up sleepyhead, I saw you open your eyes""

He really cursed Vera and her tough love right about now. "" Either feed me or let me sleep for five more hours""

"' The traditional reply is five more minutes not hours Luffy sheesh"" corrected Vera taking some pleasure in his pain filled reply.

"" Well I'm just gonna repeat myself in five minutes, so we might as well skip ahead"" said Luffy sleepily

"' True, we might as well . So let's do it"' said Vera in a way too happy voice. Luffy got cold chills thinking what was next, maybe she would drop boiling water on him instead of cold.

The scary part was that it was really possible and she would just tell him off for being a baby. He finally understood Miria's advice about not showing off your devil fruit powers unnecessarily. He cursed his luck that he just had to figure his power out in front of the most sadistic girl he had ever met. He felt something and braced himself for whatever was coming.

Whatever he had been expecting though wasn't this, this was somewhat soft and warm and really pleasant. He cracked his eyes open and saw Vera lying beside him in a revealing outfit feigning sleep. He wondered what she was up too when suddenly Miria arrived and had a shell shocked expression on her face. Before he could explain she proceeded to punch him senseless for taking advantage of a poor traumatized little girl. To make matters worse was that he could see Vera's self satisfied smirk as he got his ass handed to him. The bloody bitch had set him up! So not cool, but he forgave her because it really did feel nice for a few seconds at least.

After Miria was done venting her rage with her fists, Luffy lied back down to get some more zzzzz's. To the annoyance of Miria and amusement of Vera though he now kept one eye open in case she tried something else.

"" Luffy you still sick or something because you slept long enough"' complained Miria

"" How long was I out for"' said Luffy muffled because he was too lazy to move his lips properly right now.

"" About sixteen hours sleeping beauty"" said Vera with a glint in her eye

Luffy was wondering if she was planning something else and decided it was best to cut her off by biting the bullet by getting up and sleep somewhere else. If they had to waste time finding him, he had more time to sleep. Yeah it seemed like a good plan, now how do I lose them without too much effort?

He was about to get up when he got splashed with water for a second he feared Vera did it, but to his relief it was Miria and it was cold water. He never thought he would be so glad for ice cold water that sent a shock through his whole body. "" For crying out loud I'm already awake "' yelled Luffy

"' Then act like it only babies get to sleep all day"' deadpanned Miria

Dammit now Miria was calling him a baby too. He had to put a stop to this before his nickname became baby Luffy or babyface Luffy or something like that. Tough luck becoming the pirate king with that moniker. He would have more chance at becoming a standup comedian than a feared pirate let alone pirate king.

Heck he'd never be able to give shanks his straw-hat back just because of the ridiculous amount of mockery shanks would rain down upon him, he would never live the shame down.

He got up and went through his morning motions which were eat, shower, eat, get dressed, eat, read newspaper and then eat breakfast. Sadly there was no food in sight and no river to bathe in either or a newspaper to read. "" So what' s for breakfast"' said Luffy hoping there was food but he just hadn't spotted it yet.

"" Well the slaves took most of our supplies so whatever we can find really. So far its grilled white pine tree bark which is edible and termites. "" Miria said while eating a termite of her dagger. Which was just gross, she killed people with that thing.

"" Seriously that's it, that's not even gonna be enough as a appetizer"" complained Luffy

"' Hey don't knock it till you tried it, white pine tree bark has five hundred to six hundred calories per pound and some sugar, vitamins, minerals and tons of fiber. And termites are full of proteins too and their nest makes for excellent kindling. "' said Miria pointing at the fire were two stones lay in the middle of it with slabs of bard cooking on it.

Luffy felt like throwing a temper tantrum or maybe just break down and cry. He was also tempted to go hunt down those slaves himself for robbing him of his breakfast. "" I'll think I'll go hunt instead"" said Luffy instead as it sounded more captainy

"" Sure but take Vera with you, will you? She's been irritating me all morning with her complaints about the bark as well""

Luffy couldn't blame her chewing on a piece of wood couldn't taste good. He ignored the rest of Miria's lecture about how white pine tree bark could be grounded into flour and used to make bread or even cookies to use as food rations for the next few days. Luffy really wanted to keep it a surprise what his bread was made off, the first time he saw it or he might not be able to keep it down.

He and Vera set out together and soon started following the local animal trails that Luffy recognized. "" I think these dropping belong to a rabbit and judging by how warm it still is, it's close by"" said Luffy while holding his hand above the dropping, not quite touching but close enough to feel the hot air currents moving upwards.

"" Here mister rabbit come one boy"" Vera cooed at the surrounding woods

Luffy suppressed a chuckle at her lame joke"" It's a rabbit not a dog."" He said unnecessarily but played along nonetheless.

" Oh is there a special phrase to lure rabbits then, I thought it was universal " said Vera straight-faced

"" There is one for birds but I doubt there is one for rabbits "' deadpanned Luffy right back

"" Hmm I heard of that one let's try it. "' She then imitated the sound of a duck, poorly I might add.

"" Not bad but this time with more feeling"" Luffy encouraged Vera to make a fool out of herself

Vera caught on and distracted him by saying "' There's the rabbit " and proceeded to fire a barrage of spikes at the bushes

"" I somehow doubt there was a rabbit there"" said Luffy enjoying the thought of one upping her.

Vera however wasn't fazed in the least and just walked over to the bushes and pulled out a rabbit like a magician did out of his hat. Luffy was speechless how the hell did she pull that one off, there's a limit to luck.

"" How'd you know it was there "" he asked reluctantly

"" Oh I spotted it when you were feeling up mister rabbit's excrements" she said with a smile

Luffy groaned " and you didn't tell me why exactly""

"" Because you were having so much fun playing with shit, I couldn't bear to tear you away"' said Vera absolutely straight-faced.

So she was screwing with me, oh well that's nothing new. "" Let's go back to camp before Miria finds more delicacies and wants us to try them"'

Vera made a face and agreed and started skipping of in the general direction they came from. Luffy smiled at least he got one point in this time. He may lose the war but at least he would get some battles in to ensure some payback.

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They made their way over to camp were Miria was busy trying out her bark bread recipes which Luffy ignored with practiced ease. He or rather Vera produced their catch which Miria graciously accepted and started talking about making rabbit stew and using the bark flour as a stew thickener. Which Luffy and Vera boycotted in the strongest terms possible. Vera even went so far as to lie down on the ground and roll around back and forth with her arms pressed up against her chest chanting " I don't wanna, I don't wanna, I don't wanna."" The incessant nagging produced its desired effect, Miria dropped her stew thickener idea with a pout, crisis averted.

The power of incessant nagging truly showed its omnipotence on this memorable day where the battle of the stew thickener was fought against the fearsome general Miria of Collinsport. Luffy would have to get a scribe to journalize this finding that men too can use nagging to their advantage, so long as they had a girl to do the nagging for them , to pass this knowledge down to his descendants for posterity.

"' Luffy stop striking a pose and acting silly, the rabbit's skinned and you still haven't gotten water yet"" Miria interrupted this glorious occasion.

"" Yes dear "' Luffy said offhandedly and proceeded to go fetch some water wondering all the way how the defeated general still bossed around the victorious one.

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Half an hour later they had some delicious rabbit stew though Luffy still wasn't satisfied and was tempted to secretly increase his portion a bit but Miria kept a stern eye on him all the time. Missing Vera stealing a few choice bites completely herself, much to his chagrin even more so when Miria didn't believe him. Something to do with prior reputation and precedents which got too technical for him so he zoned out.

They were soon finished with breakfast and with a last parting glare at Vera, Luffy stood up to face the new day on a empty stomach in his opinion.

Miria gathered up all their supplies which wasn't much while Luffy moved towards Vera for a conversation with her he wasn't looking forward too.

""Hey Vera I'm gonna have to ask you to stay behind, now that we are attacking Valsa docks. So you don't accidentally trigger another standing order"" said Luffy trying to be reasonable

Vera smiled ""I have another standing order to follow any suspicious characters and report back to Alexander. ""

That shell shocked the pair "" You mean you have only been hanging around us because of that order "" asked Miria after dropping something in shock which was now lying forgotten in the grass.

"" Guess "" she said cheekily

"' For once! Just give us a straight fucking answer!"" shouted Miria angrily

"" Sorry can' t, I got an order not to tell you why I'm following you. "" She said smiling like a Cheshire cat

"" Didn't you just do that"' asked Luffy confused

"" No I said I had an order. I didn't say that was the reason I was following you, or are you a suspicious character?"" She asked while blinked her eyes twice like she couldn't believe what she had just seen, Luffy groaned at that.

"" You like screwing with us way too much" Miria complained feeling exasperated. She felt like bashing her head against a tree or something. But more preferably she would like to bash Vera's head against a tree, it would make things so much simpler.

"" So it can go either way"' asked Luffy getting over his own shock

"" Yep, I might stab you in the back or not at Valsa docks. But I will definitely stab you if you try to ditch me"' warned Vera in a way too upbeat voice.

They both groaned "" I'm really starting to hate her"" Luffy agreed for once"' She is giving me a bloody headache" he commented

"" So what now "" asked Miria

"" You take me with you off course and hope for the best"" Vera answered for him

They sighed and agreed to take her with them against their better judgment. Well actually they had no choice as they both knew they couldn't beat her so forcing her wasn't an option. Besides if they got lucky they could outrun her long enough to kill Alexander. It might even be fun, them chasing Alexander and Vera chasing them the first one to catch their prey wins. The adult version of the game tag with the consolation prize being a quick death. He looked at Vera's smile and amended that, maybe not so quick.

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They were staking out Valsa docks like planned but ran into a little snag. They couldn't keep track of the bloody guards. There were so many tall shipwrecks around that it blocked their view and guards kept disappearing in between the wreckage. They couldn't get an accurate number nor could they get an idea of what patrols were run. They really understood why this was such a good ambushing point, even if you knew in advance it would be difficult to turn it around. There were so many cracks, nooks and crannies. That a man could hide in and get the drop on ya that trying to flush them out would be tactical suicide and they had plenty of height to get a good range for their flintlocks.

"" So any bright ideas for storming the place" asked Vera cheerfully seemingly unconcerned with them walking into a death trap. Well if he could turn his body into metal maybe he wouldn't be concerned either, not to mention she could always play the hostage card.

"" We aren't breaching the place we' re gonna go in there like ninjas and strike before they even realize we're there"" replied Luffy confident in the ninja tactic after its previous semi-success.

Vera pouted "" But where's the fun in that." She whined like it was all a big game to her.

Miria piped in"" Just imaging the look on their face when you come out of nowhere and stab them, the shock, fear and hatred is quite memorable"" Luffy wondered if that would actually convince Vera. Then he looked over and saw the dreamy look on her face, never mind.

"" So who wants to go kill that lone sentry guarding the entrance to the valley"" asked Luffy trying to get this thing going if he couldn't learn anything useful from the guard patrols.

Two hands shot up like two overeager students trying to answer a question the teacher just asked. He briefly wondered if he could play them against each other a bit in some kind of game.

"" Let's let Vera do this one."" He decided after coming up blank.

Miria pouted a bit but otherwise said nothing and padded Vera on the back for good luck.

"" You think she'll be fine"" she asked once Vera was out of earshot.

" Hmm doesn't really matter. She succeeds great if not we retreat and try again tomorrow. We got nothing better to do until a ship shows up so we might as well entertain ourselves"' said Luffy matter of factly. And then realized he was no different from Vera and Miria, great just peachy.

"" True"" Miria agreed and then sat back to watch the show.

Luffy watched how Vera slowly made her way over to the guard and then took the high ground by taking advantage of a higher pass in the valley. It was only a few meters higher than the spot where the guard was but it was more rocky and uneven which was why they probably didn't use it to transport slaves. He then took a longer look at it and realized it was going into a dead end against the cliffs. Useful for a invading force but not so much for the defending as they would be trapped there if they mounted a post there.

So Vera sneaked up and Luffy wondered if she was going to jump down and skewer him with one of her transformed weapons. He got it wrong, she fired of a single spike right into his neck causing him to gurgle for a second and then topple over. Hmm that was nice work, no alarms or mess. He'd have to remember to compliment her when she gets back. Vera then jumped down and grabbed the body and dragged it into the bushes. What happened next he didn't know. But suddenly there was a lot of wet slapping sounds, a few spurts of blood landing on the leaves and some ground got moved around by the looks of it.

"" Wow, she's chopping up the corpse and burying it"" realized Miria

"" I think she went a little overboard on the ninja part"" commented Luffy

"" Hmm yeah no need to bury him in pieces, a shallow grave would have been enough."" commented Miria "" though we didn't bother with that" she conceded.

"" I won't tell if you won't ""offered Luffy trying to save face.

"" agreed"" said Miria who wanted to keep some measure of authority over Vera and if that was a misperceived expertise in stealth then so be it.

Soon Vera was back and mild praise was showered upon her which she accepted gracefully. Though there were a few comments from Miria about Vera getting blood on her clothes and how hard that was to get out. Though Luffy personally thought she was nitpicking just to nitpick.

They moved down the valley and soon spotted around the bend a guard looking over a small pond with his back turned against them and another guarding the entrance to a hole in a galleon shipwreck. The shipwreck was big enough to cut off access to the beach beyond it. So they had to go through it unless they wanted to swim around.

""Okay the shipwreck guard's line of sight covers the pond guy so we need to take him out first and then the pond before he turns around."" analyzed Miria

"" We can't, the pond moves around back and forth to sweep his eyes over our approach. There's debris for cover that will hide us from the shipwreck guy but not the pond"" Luffy argued back

"" Why not just take em out simultaneously, we got the manpower"" argued vera

" I think that's our best bet"" agreed Luffy

"" Okay I'll take pond you take shipwreck"" said Miria dividing up the tasks even though he was captain but he wasn't gonna be fussy about it.

They soon split up, Luffy and Vera going one way and Miria the other. Luffy darted from one small broken ship to another while Vera kept pace right behind him.

Now that he got a closer look he could see shipwreck guy trying to fix something though he wasn't sure what. This meant the guy was distracted and he could take a few more risks in his approach. He signaled Vera but she just gave him a puzzled face. And he remembered he only agreed on a few handsigns with Miria not Vera. He cursed his lack in forethought and hoped Vera would just catch on, she certainly had the natural aptitude for it.

He moved a bit closer and then looked over to Miria who was also in position. With one exchanged handsign they both broke cover and charged their targets hoping to catch them unawares. Luffy used soru to cover the small distance that was left.

The ship wreck guy looked up from his work with a startled expression but before he could say anything he had a dagger piercing his throat. Luffy caught him and carried him to the ground so he wouldn't make a sound. He then looked over to Miria and saw a similar result. Only Miria was trying to submerge him in the pond with little luck, apparently corpses float who knew.

He looked back and saw a pouting Vera ""Not fair""

"" You'll get your chance next time."' He said feeling like he was talking to a spoilt child.

After linking up with Miria they sneaked through the ships interior out to the other side. Where they spotted another guard having a cigarette break while overlooking the water. Vera tried ambushing him but was held back by both Luffy and Miria. "' What."" She asked none too quietly

Luffy whispered "' We don't know If there are any other guards around yet. "" Vera grumbled a bit under her breath but stayed where she was. Luffy and Miria looked and looked but couldn't spot any other guards but knew they had to be around here somewhere. They could hear somebody moving around and talking but they couldn't place him.

"" That's annoying "" commented Miria

"" Indeed, maybe we should just kill this one and flush out the others"" proposed Luffy

"" Then what would have been the point of sneaking in?"" asked Miria skeptically

"" Well I can't see around a corner, so I can stay here all day but I still won't see that guard unless he moves over here, but then I still don't know if he has a friend"

"" You have a point, fine, but let's still try to be stealthy until we have no more choice"" agreed Miria

"' Naturally "" agreed Luffy though Vera was staying quiet for some reason which didn't sit too well with Luffy but he ignored it for now.

Miria noticed it too and tried to remedy it ""Vera why don't you take him out and drag him back here""

This mollified Vera somewhat and she soon transformed her arms into long whips which puzzled Luffy and Miria who weren't sure what she was going to do with them.

She then extended them and wrapped them around the smoking guard' s throat and body, choking him and dragging him back at the same time. "" Effective "" commented Luffy impressed.

"' Hey wait, before you kill him let's ask him some questions" said Miria trying to learn from previous mistakes.

"" Sure like what"" asked Luffy though Vera seemed annoyed for some reason.

"" Hmm what does Alexander look like "" Miria asked after a few seconds of thought, which made no sense to Luffy because he already asked that.

The guard struggled around for a bit but didn't answer, well he had a tough time doing so with Vera still wrapped around his throat"" Vera let him breath, he is turning blue""chastised Luffy

"" Fine "" pouted Vera and let go of his throat and eased up her wrappings.

The guard flashed a brief expression of relief and gratitude and then went back to fear. Miria pressed "" What does your boss look like?""

He didn't seem inclined to answer but a nod to Vera and her gleeful smirk was enough to get him to talk. "" A middle aged bald man who always wears a black suit or white when visiting the marines. "" this confused Luffy "" Wait what, I thought your boss had long black hair like a girl's and a red t shirt with a marine seagull on it""

The guard looked at him like he was crazy. Miria sighed " it's as I feared, that guard lied to you Luffy after he got reassured that help was on the way""  
Luffy cursed if he hadn't already killed Carlos he would go back and do it again.

""When is your boss supposed to come back"" Miria proceeded less vexed by the deception because she wasn't in the room at the time.

Again the guard looked reluctant but the hopeful look on Vera's face was once again enough to get him to talk. Miria had to look into that, maybe she could study Vera or possibly learn from her to get the same effect.

"" He is due to arrive tomorrow at the earliest and in three days at the latest"" replied the guard while inching away from Vera.

"" That's kinda useless for an ambush but at least we know he is coming at all and not taking a vacation"" commented Luffy

"" True its annoying to wait around not knowing if he'll show up or not"" agreed Miria

Vera added nonplussed " Why, you could have so much fun playing with the guards in the mean time""'

They both ignored her and said " Anything else you can think off "" asked Miria

"" Hmm not really, perhaps a list of their accomplices or something"

"" Possible but that question is better put to Alexander. I doubt this low level trash actually knows something worthwhile.""

The guard seemed offended but wisely kept his piece. "" Then we might as well kill him now "' proposed Miria " Agreed"" said Luffy but before they could say anything else. Vera pierced the guard with numerous sharp spikes sprouting from inside her whip wrappings and then lifted him up and flung him to the wall. In the process he got untangled out of her wrappings by spinning around and getting absolutely shredded to pieces, leaving behind a mess of cut flesh and mangled bones. The ground was now sprayed with his blood and small pieces of his flesh. Luffy wasn't sure if he died instantly but sure hoped so for his sake. Good thing his vocal cords got shredded as well or that might have spelled trouble.

"" Vera please be more patient next time and careful we don't need the guards spotting us"" admonished Luffy feeling like it was an exercise in futility.

"' But it was fun making him twirl around like a ballerina."" She pouted

Luffy decided then and there to never take her to a ballet recital to prevent any more creative ideas. Miria checked the body and confirmed it was a corpse. """ So what now? "

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